Instincts
by Buddykins
Summary: SPOILERS! What if the Night Howlers weren't the problem causing predators to go savage? What if the flowers were only enhancing a predators instincts once used to survive? If Judy can be so mistreated for being born a peaceful and kind bunny, just imagine how predators are treated for being born with fangs and claws once meant to kill. Alternate movie ending.
1. Primitive ways, Modern times

**Chapter Notes:**

So this chapter is basically just the press conference that Judy gives and the conversation with Nick after, but there are some extra things involved. Rights are not mine, I don't own Zootopia or any of the characters.

This starts during Judy's press speech about the case. Enjoy-

* * *

Nick's eyes began to open wide seeing the images and video of all the missing mammals being displayed behind Judy as she gave her speech to the press. All of the animals being muzzled and guided by collar polls, a few animals lashing out swiping at a nearby officer, other animals with sadness plastered on their faces and their ears laying down flat, and even Emmit Otterton squirming around trying desperately to free himself from the collar. All these images began making Nick feel hot, claws squeezing in on themselves with the nails aching, flashes of memories from being muzzled as a kid being tear to his eyes and then rage. "...It might be time to consider their biology. Predators survived on these killer instincts long ago," Judy's voice rang through Nick's ears pulling him from his painful memory flashes, and now she was approaching him.

The grey bunny began telling him about not having enough time when he interrupted her with a raised paw, "Oh, I think you said plenty." Hurt and betrayal flowing deeply with his sad tone. "' _Clearly there's a biological component, these predators may be reverting back to their primitive savage ways._ '" He said quoting her words from the speech, with each word passed his expression shifted. Betrayal began turning into anger, and his hurt expression wrinkled at the muzzle with eyes narrowing in defensively, bordering threateningly.

Her voice firm but her face holding a confused gaze at her friend, "I just stated the facts of the case, its not like a bunny can go savage." She said not seeing the message in his words, the message in her words. "Nick you're not like them." She said now clearly confused, trying to defuse the situation, but only making it tick by faster.

Another wave of hurt and betrayal quickly overcame Nick, but out of subconscious defences it was replaced even quicker by anger, "Oh so there's a _them_ now?" Nick said voice laced in pain and anger. now without his knowing or doing, his muzzle wrinkled near snarling, his eyes were completely focused on the rabbit, and his mind breaking down everything she said, along with his own logical thinking.

"You're not that kind of predator." Purple eyes began reflecting hurt and misunderstanding off of emerald ones.

"The kind that needs to be muzzled? The kind that makes you need to carry around, _fox repellent_?" The red furred mammal asked now fully lacing his words in accusation and spite.

A small grey faced looked down at the familiar canister in guilt, in shame, in regret.

Nick sent his paws to his temples trying to grasp at what little sanity he had left, once vibrant green eyes now a near void black with ears point out and back showing aggression. "L-let me ask you a question. Are you afraid of me?" he asked testingly causing Judy's nose to twitch slightly with her mouth open and expression hurt.

"Are you think I might go nuts?" He asked warningly. "Do you think I might go _savage_?" He asked threateningly, moving his now visible claws in a circle between them. A snarl now just as clear on his face, eyes trained, muzzled scrunched, fangs showing, and rage ever present.

 _claws. pain. fear. Run. Run. RUN._ Now Judy's prey nature that kept rabbits alive during the stone ages was now screaming inside of her trying desperately to live. But now those survival instincts are drowned out by modern thinking inside her mind. Instantly her mind raced back to what happened with Gideon when she was younger, one of few times she had experienced fear like this, a fear for one's own life.

* * *

Judy walked between the carnival stalls in time to see Gideon stealing her friend, Lambbell's tickets from her and shoving them in the front pocket of his overalls. "Baaah baaah baaah" he sounded mockingly in her face as her pushed her away by her head.

"Hey. Stop that." Judy called out to the country fox as she stomped up to the group.

He looked over and laughed seeing her still in the police outfit from the carnival's play. "Nice costume loser." He said in a thick country accent getting a laugh out of him and his friend Travis.

"Kindly return my friend's tickets please." She demanded of the larger mammal, extending her hand forward.

"You better watch out little bunny because I'm a fox." He said hitting his fingers to his chest as Travis snaked around behind him, "And like you said in your little play us predators used to eat prey, and that killer instinct still runs through our DANA." he said with a snarl showing of his small but sharp teeth.

"I believe it's pronounced DNA." Travis corrected Gideon with a whisper.

Out of anger from being corrected Gideon took a hit at the weazel, "Shut it Travis. Don't tell me what I know." He said turning his attention back to Judy and pushing her down. "Are you afraid, awww are you gonna cry little bunny, hu?" Seeing the small rabbit on the floor with watery eyes with a twitch in her pink nose made the two predators start to laugh.

"She totally going to cry. Look at her nose twitch." Laughed the sneaky weasel as he pointed at her.

Gideon stepped closer to her now leaning over her, and that was what started the fight or flight response kicked in, and with that so did Judy. For an mammal, rabbits were some of the smaller ones however they didn't survive during the stone ages for nothing, no. Rabbits survived off their powerful legs often used to outrun and flee from any predator that was after them, and using these very same powerful legs Judy kicked up connecting with the bottom side of Gideon's muzzle. Unfortunately for the small rabbit, the size of the fox prevented any severe damage, and the well idea backfired as it only proved to enrage him.

 _pain. fight. fight. Fight._ His predatory nature began to manifest and take hold. Now the seemingly massive predator was snarling fully out of rage and hate, with his claws drawn out his claws with full intent on mauling his prey laying helpless before him. In a flash of violence he drew three claw marks across Judy's cheek which were already beginning to show blood seeping out slowly.

pain. danger. fear. run. run. RUN. The prey instincts were burning up inside the small bunny, they burned so strong she gave in, but she was never able to get away.

A heavy clawed paw forced itself onto her face holding her to the ground, "YOU BETTER REMEMBER THAT NEXT TIME YOU THINK YOU ARE EVER ANYTHING MORE THAN JUST A DUMB BUNNY!" Gideon screamed menacingly inches from her face as he got up, shoving her face back down.

* * *

' _No. I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid. I won't run, I won't run._ ' She told herself coming back to the present, willing herself to stay standing in front of Nick.

"You think I might try to...EAT YOU?" Nick asked fully displaying his claws and fangs as he snapped his upper body over Judy's as if to pounce.

 _LIVE!_ The bunnies instincts screamed out finally breaking through into Judy's conscious. Without a moment to spare, without a moment to think, without a moment to doubt, she reached out to defend herself as she unclasped the fox spray a grey paw still twitching over the canister.

*click* the safety button sounded, a sound missed by those a few feet away, but a sound that near shouted to the fox and bunny alike stopping them both in their place.

There was so much hurt that found its way onto the red foxes face, so much hurt that he nearly drowned in it. "I knew it." He huffed looking not to her scared purple eyes, but to a menacing pink casing.

Purple eyes followed the now green eyes, they followed right to the very same pink casing causing her to also nearly drown in her emotions. Thick waves of guilt and regret washed over Judy's conscious. Ears previously perked up defensively picking up all sounds in front of them dropped limp in sadness and desperation swaying sideways and the bunny shook her head trying to show that it wasn't her intention to make the move. Those very same waves of sadness spilled out to Nick trying just as desperately to reach him, only to find his walls he built as a kid were already far above their reach.

Nick's near neutral face now returned only now with a twinge of disappointment, "Just when I thought someone actually believed in me." He said to himself and anyone who cared enough to listen. "Probably best if you don't have a predator as a partner." He stated pushing a paper into her paws and walking away tail swaying back and forth irritatedly. News reporters made way for him, though all of them with their equipment facing the two during their whole conversation ready to twist their words as they see fit.

Looking over the yellow paper, Judy's eyes widened. Looking over the filled out paper, Judy's eyes widened. Looking over at the trust and faith Nick had for her, Judy's eyes widened. "no" a quiet voice whispered to itself. "Nick. Nick." Judy called trying to chase after her friend. Trying to show just how sorry she was for what she had just said, for what she had just done. Only this time to be stopped by a wall of reporters and recording equipment.

"Officer Hopps, were you just threatened by that predator?" A beaver questioned accusingly.

"No. He's my friend." Judy responded trying hard to get through the crowd. Her voice now firm and sure in her decision and words.

"We can't even trust our own friends." Another rabbit asked or claimed, it wasn't know what she meant.

Looking at the reporter confused at the change in her words, the change in her meaning, "That is not what I said." Judy stated back, trying to clarify her message, only to be drowned out by more questions being pushed onto her from the reporters now completely encircling her.

* * *

 **Author' Notes:**

I tried to stay true to the movies wording, but also only wanted to include important parts of the dialogue rather than the whole thing. Plus I have been having a hard time finding what is said throughout the movie word-for-word.

Well there's that chapter. I know it was a pretty short chapter but the next one will be longer but, how was it? Let me know what you thought, all the goods and bads.

I'm right this and another fic at the same time so it's kinda like my first, but I'm hopping that with doing this I can grow in more ways than one with my writing. I hope to be back soon!-


	2. The Calling

**Chapter Notes:**

This chapter is slightly longer and takes place just after the last in which Judy gave her press speech.

Enjoy-

* * *

Nick walked hidden in the alleyways between the backs of different buildings hidden in the didn't know where it was he was headed to at the moment, all he knew is that he was going. Going fast, going slow, going at all? He didn't really see the point in caring anymore, not after what had just taken place. It might see strange, but after only two days the sly fox's walls had already crumbled to pieces thanks to an optimistic bunny set on doing right for the sake of doing right. He had trusted her despite seeing the fox repellent back in the ice cream parlor. It upset him, it hurt him so, but yet he understood. He had known tones of foxes in his life and the only one with a kind heart and good intentions was his sweet mother.

Oh how he missed her so much. She was once his home, she was the only place he felt safe, the only one who had seen him for more than just a fox. She had seen him as a strong and kind young boy, and because of her; he was. That is until that night at the rangers scouts, that is until he saw the world for what it truly was. Cold and uncaring; and so that is what he became. Cold and uncaring. But then a little rabbit squeezed her way into his life, and showed him that the world can be any way it wants to be, that he could be anyone he wants to be. Then what he wanted to be the most; was her friend. Someone she could lean on and count on, someone to show her the way when she was lost, just like she was to him. To Nick, Judy was his first friend he had made sense he was still a pup.

"This just in. We are now getting reports of a fox intimidating and attacking officer Judy Hopps, who claims the fox to be her friend." A new report sounded from an open window of an office, "We go to the scene now." She said before Nick was then able to hear his voice mumbled from the distance, but he knew what was being said.

With an angry huff the vulpine as he continued walking, now with an angry flicking in his fluffy tail. ' _I didn't mean to do it, I was just so hurt, I just felt so lied to. Again._ ' He thought to himself now beginning to feel grief and regret in his actions and words. His anger faded away with the coming of his painful memories. "I'm sorry Judy." he whispered out of sadness directed to a friend he knew that would never hear.

As the red fox walked along the back ways of the city doubt began to fill his mind, maybe they were right, maybe predators were naturally violent, and maybe even he too needed to be muzzled. But no matter how he tried to steel himself he couldn't escape from the pain and fear that came to him with the thought of a muzzle strapped over his face, not without his ears falling back flat with his tail curling between his legs, a hurt whimpering escaping his throat, and tears rolling down his furry cheeks.

* * *

It was only a few hour after the morning press conference has been cleared out of the ZPD headquarters by chief Bogo see his officer being harassed by the news crews. And Judy was sitting back in her cubicle typing away at her computer filling out various reports recording all the notes and information she had gathered for the case.

It had taken her about two hours to finish her reports, everything from when she booted Nick's stroller to when the chief had arrived with reinforcements to the cliffside laboratory. But now she was still hard at work trying to figure out what was causing the predators to go savage, she had to make it clear for herself and all the other citizens living in Zootopia. And so far, she had no leads.

She looked through all the research that Lionhearts lab had found, she looked into everything she could get her paws on. Now she was searching through everything once again from the beginning; the species of animal, where they lived, where they went missing, how old they were, whether they were male or female, what their diets consisted of, personal records such as personality and behavior, criminal records, even the time of occurrences, but every search lead to the same conclusion; nowhere.

It's been a day of looking for an answer, and it's been a day since Judy was any closer to finding one. There was a new incident of a lion that went savage in his home located in Sahara Square, the ZPD received a worried call from neighbors saying they heard thrashing and roars coming from the house. When chief Bogo and 3 other squads had shown up the house they found the lion crawling around on all fours sniffing through the house, but when they entered he attacked officer McHorn. But luck for the rhino his tough thick skin prevented any major damage and he was only treated for a few cuts to his forearms. While they were searching through the house the wife, Sarah Pawres, had returned home from the store saying her husband was fine before she left a little over twenty minutes ago.

With the Pawres incident there was now another mammal to look into, and so that's what Judy did. She looked into everything she could find on the lion, but again nothing of significance came up in her search. "Watch you working on there Hopps?" the timber wolf asked after hearing her defeated sighing.

"I'm still trying to find something that connects all the savage cases." She said looking up to her fellow officer. "Nothing I matching up. Species, location, diet, even all of their behaviors and personalities are completely different. The only similarity is…" she trailed off not wishing to offend him, not wishing to re-enact what had happened with Nick the other day.

"That they are all predators?" he questioned finishing her sentence for her. Judy dropped her head out of shame.

' _Their all predators, what sort of answer is that._ ' She thought upset with herself for not being about to find anything else that might be the answer.

"Hey it's okay Hopps." The canine said neutrally, "Its no ones fault, and if it was it certainly wouldn't be yours. You've been trying harder than anyone to clear the names of predators. Maybe it's time to just accept the facts." He said with a frown.

"Accept the facts? How can I accept the facts when the only fact is because it's in their DNA?" she looked up at him with a mix of sadness and anger as her nose twitched. "if that's the case then all the predators are going to go savage. That included every predatory family officer here at the ZPD, even you and your family." She said now on the verge of tears thinking of what it would be like to lose all the predatory officers and citizens.

"Come one Judy, you know it's not like that. It's just that predators have always been more aggressive than prey animals, some of us really are just hardwired to be dangerous." He said slumping further into the small wall being completely blunt now, "That's why they survived, that's how they survived. Maybe history is just doomed to repeat itself once again." He said getting up from the wall.

Not one to give up Judy was still trying to cling onto officer Wolfred's words looking for some sort of footing for a lead. And then a new idea fell onto her lap as she heard the distinct high pitched whine of a canine yawning.

"Wolfred why do you do that?" Judy asked quickly standing on her chair to be closer to eye level with him.

"Yawning? Because I'm a little tired from the case, same as you." He said with a confused look on his face.

"No not that, why do you whine when you yawn and curl your tongue up like that?"

"I don't know, I guess it's just a wolf thing." He responded back to her. "I've howl too before but you didn't ask about that." He said wondering where she was going with this.

Her brow furrowed trying to use what he said ' _it's just a wolf thing?_ ' she questioned, ' _Nick said something like that too!_ ' she thought having a flashback to when her and Nick were at the assistant mayor's desk and then again at the cliffside lab.

* * *

"Look at these dumb dumbs," the fox chuckled seeing the pair of timber wolves approaching Manchas, only taking back what he said seeing them capture him with a net gun. "Bet you a nickle one of them is going to howl."

On the little monitor the both watched closely the fox was indeed right as one of the wolves threw their head back and howled forcing the other to howl just the same. "What is up with wolves and the howling?" he questioned to no one in particular with a confused look on his face.

With that the other flashback began running through her head.

Judy was pressed up against the wall of the watch post as Nick snuck behind the white wolf to the other side of the post, only having not realized the change in very wind blew the smell of a fox, the smell of an intruder right to the wolf's strong nose. He began sniffing the air coming closer and closer to Nick, with his paws preparing for a fight. *hooowwwl* the sound reached out to his ears, the sound reached out to his very being.

"Hoooowwwl!" He called out in return unable to stop himself.

"Hey, stop you're going to start a howl!" The other guard hissed at him putting his paws on the others shoulders

"I wasn't the one who…"

*hoooowwwl* now two set of wolf ears perked up out of reflex.

"Hooowwwl" "Hooowwwl!" "Hooowwwl!" Now every wolf that was guarding the windy perimeter was howling out of sheer subconscious forces.

* * *

Mentally snapping back to her ZPD cubical, "Wolfred! Why do wolves howl?!" Judy asked her coworker excitedly.

Now an even stranger confusion came across the officer's muzzle. While many animals knew that wolves howled they never really knew a reason behind it, even wolves themselves weren't sure. "I don't know. It's just something that happens when we get really excited or sad I guess."

"What about when wolves howl in a group?"

"Same thing I think. Once one wolf howls any wolf who hears it gets a sudden urge to howl back." He said scratching the scruff of his neck slightly embarrassed talking about primitive animal traits with what's going on. "Why did you think of something?" He directed the questioning to her instead.

"I think I might be onto something." Judy responded writing down what he was saying with her carrot pen. "Can you howl right now?"

Now completely lost to her reasoning brown eyebrows furrowed"Right now? No I can't just howl for nothing. Especially not here at-"

*hoowwl* Judy called tilting her head up trying to start another howl like at the lab.

Officer Wolfred hissed to her trying to keep his own voice down. "Judy stop! You can't just-"

*hooowwwl* the rabbit called out lengthening the call this time.

 _howl. hoowwl. hooowwwl. HOOOWWWL._ The canine instincts were bubbling up into officer Wolfred's mind, bubbling more than he could keep from spilling out as his heart rate rose quickly.

"Hooowwwl" he called back excitedly.

"Hooowwwl." "Hooowwwl." Two more ZPD officers calling back could be heard from other cubicles across the room.

' _They can't control their howling!_ ' Judy thought excitedly hearing the other wolves sounding off in response.

"Hopps! Wolfred!" A stern voice shouted from the walkway, a voice belonging to none other that chief Bogo. "Will you please tell me what it is you think you are doing?" He asked warningly clearly not approving what was going on.

The wolf cleared his throat as he stopped howling, "Uh sorry chief I-" he was cut of by Judy jumping into the conversation.

"Chief I may have figured something out!" The rabbit exclaimed turning to face the chief. "Officer Wolfred said that wolves howl when they get excited or when another wolf howls. They can't control it chief! They can't control it calling out to their instincts!" She explained excitedly.

"Yes every mammal knows they can't help it, we hear it every full moon." Bogo grunted back becoming impatient. "Where are you going with this Hopps?"

"What if something is setting off predators?" She said putting the idea from her head to his, "What if someone is doing something to trigger their instincts into taking control? I think someone might be threatening them or attacking them forcing them to slip out of control to their survival instincts." She claimed finishing off the idea forming in her mind.

Chief Bogo was taken back by this idea, this outrageous, crazy, illogical, idea. But yet it made sense. The only connection so far had been that all the mammals fell into the predator family, but yet not all of them were found attacking other animals. Reports confiscated from the lab at cliffside showed that some of them were found prowling their homes or close by streets, some running around frantically, a few even found sleeping curled up like stone age animals. But none of them reported attacking other animals out in the city, they had only tried to attack the wolves sent after them. And that's when it also clicked inside the cape buffalo's head, ' _they were defending themselves_ '.

The gears in his head began turning the same way the rabbits did in order to find where this might lead to. "Wolfred, Hopps. Find out as much historical information on the stone age behaviors of all the predatory family mammals." He stated strongly giving them their new orders for the day. "Look into any current stereotypes for each predator mammal too, it might help us find something." He said getting a nod from both officers as they went to typing at their desks.

* * *

Nick sat on a torn up leather chair sitting in an abandon warehouse of sorts on the outskirts of Zootopia away from the main population and residential area. Wind whistled through the holes in the wall and through jagged edges of shattered windows bringing with it a warm dry air. The fox felt this breeze pushing threw his fur, it made it roll softly and smooth as it shifted directions slightly. On any other day he would love this feeling of a gentle wind combing his hairs, but on a day like today he didn't even feel it through his empty sorrows.

Tired rolling on the dirt covered road filled his ears, it wasn't common for vehicles to come out this far from the city, let alone to his known hideout. Occasionally he would get another con artist who needed help with a scam looking for his service, or even a criminal looking for a place to hide out for a while so it didn't worry him enough to hide.

However when two large polar bears he knew to be some of Mr. Big's 'errand boys' stepped into the doorway then he began to worry. It definitely was to far for them to be out this far from Tundratown without a reason. "Mr. Big wants to see you." The larger polar bear's voice boomed through the few feet of space they left between them and the fox.

With a sad but irritated he huffed, but still got up anyways and followed the massive predators to the limo sent for him. He sat in the middle of them slumped over with his elbows on his knees and a far off gaze in his eyes. He was nervous about going back to see the crime boss, he had spared him from icing when he sold the shrew the rug, he had spared him from icing when Judy was with him to solve the case, but now he feels his luck of being a sly fox has worn too thin this time. ' _Sorry Carrots, looks like I won't be able to apologize for what I did now._ ' He thought as his mind sank into a deeper slump than his sad expression could show.

The ride to Mr. Big's estate was a lot longer than it was when they were nabbed at the limo company, this time it wasn't filled with fear and panic, but regret and sorrow. After a short walk he found himself standing on a familiar red carpet, its fibers freezing cold. Not because the climate and air around them, but because the icy death below patiently waiting to reach out and pull him under. The two bears stood behind him paws folded across their waist, and two more entered standing in the other side of the room with their large paws also clasped, and then a fifth. Kozlov; a polar bear so huge and massive that he dwarfed the others, one so massive in fact he had to duck down low just to enter the doorway, and once in the room he was only inches from hitting the ceiling with the flat of his head with every ground moving step he made. He was Mr. Big's personal guard, he was by the crime lords side every second, and nothing happened without him knowing, he was respected by others in the group, and fear by those who weren't. But with him came and even larger presence; Mr. Big.

The small mammal has been in the underworld for longer than anyone else, while he didn't have the biggest mafia in all of Zootopia his was by far the most feared. Every criminal in Tundratown knew that he and his members meant business, that he and his members meant trouble. At one point a rival group went against him, only one being spared from an icy grave, simply because only one animal was need to send a message. No one after that year dared to cross him, all but a scam artist fox who had worked his way into the shrew's ranks.

The all too familiar chair was pushed forward onto the desk in the middle of the room and on it was Mr. Big himself, "Nicky my boy." He started, no anger in his voice but also no glee. "I heard from the news that you attacked the rabbit officer you brought here with you, the officer that saved the life of my baby girl." He said in his gruff aged voice.

"It wasn't like that, the news is just spinning some lie." Nick said hurt in the accusation that he sought to harm his friend. "But...I did say somethings, some threatening things." He said with sad green eyes wandering the floor

"Why don't you tell me how this went down, and Nicky," the rodent spoke getting the fox to look at him, "don't lie to me this time." He finished coldly much like the air in the room.

With that Nick told Mr. Big what happened. He told him about Judy's speech to the news and everything she had said. He told of how much he had trusted her and began to look up to her in admiration for her strong will, but then the speech had sent it all up in flames. He told the story of the argument they had, he described it word for word and action for action. He knew it best to tell the shrew everything that occurred. And lastly he told him of his threatening acts and false attack. Everything was said with eye looking anywhere but to the crime lord, with words laced we regret and shame, with a body simply ready to give up.

Mr. Big took everything in, he heard every word, and felt every emotion. He knew how hard it was for the street fox to trust, he had once been one the same, and he too knew the pain of such betrayal. He knew Judy wasn't out to get predators, he knew she was only reporting what she knew, but he also knew the message Nick took with those words, and most of all he understood. "My poor child, don't worry." He said to the red fox showing he felt no ill will to him. With a snap of his fingers and a swipe of his small paw he sent his men out of the room (all accept Kozlov of course). "I asked you here so I could hear from you what really happened. And I am pleased with your honesty to me." He said to Nick as he looked the fox over.

"I just wish I would have done something differently. I just wish I wasn't a vicious predator." He said as he looked to the older mammal.

"Nicky my boy, you are indeed a predator, but you are not a vicious one." Mr. big said recalling memories from before Nick sold him the false rug. Nick was a true fox, a sneaky and cunning animal indeed, but he never once laid claws on anyone for his own gain, even when threatened he chose to walk away rather than use those claws to make things worse. "I know just as well as your dear mother did, that you are a kind and gentle creature Nicky, I know you won't hurt anyone you care about. Don't worry Nick things will work out one way or another." He said before letting the fox know he was free to leave.

"Before I go, may I?" He said gesturing to the shrine for Grandmama. With a nod from Mr. big he carefully walked around to the front of the shine. He took in a slow breath closing his eyes and crossing his heart. He clasped his padded paws together and bowed his head down in respect giving a silent pray to the mammal who once took him in. It was late now and the weather had changed storm clouds now ready to rain over all of Zootopia, all over the once beautiful day.

Nick was deep in thought the whole ride, his conversation with Mr. Big had brought Judy back into his mind in the brightest of lights, now all he wanted to do was apologize to her, and also to apologize to his dear mom. He wanted to tell her how sorry he was for becoming a scheming fox like he had always promised he wouldn't be. Warmth began growing in his eye, it's a warmth he hardly felt the past twenty year, but one he had come to learn over the past few day. The polar bears dropped him back off outside his hideout and left, the fox fell back into his worn chair once more, and as he fell so did his walls.

' _Mom._ ' Nick thought to himself which opened up the floodgates for all his childhood memories to flow forward. He saw again all the happy times he had with his mom. He felt again all the love she had shown him and cherishing she and giving him. He lived again all the smiles he had seeing her and being with her. He never wanted to do anything more than to make his dear mother proud, for she was his everything. She was the kind soul that guided him and taught him. She was the sweet person who looked through his fur and saw more than a sneaky fox. She was the home that made him feel safe and loved.

And with the flood of his memories came his flood of tears. Tears rolled down his cheeks and soaked deep into his fur, and spilling across his shirt and tie. Sobbing sounds bubbling and clogging his throat all trying to escape at once, and finally they broke free.

*hoooowwwwl* a sad sound called out, a sad sound Nick called out. Every canine species was able to howl, but wolves were to only ones who called out of excitement. Both foxes and coyotes could still call out, but only in times of unbearable sadness, and for the lonely red fox; that was now. Nick had only ever howled once before, and that was in response to the sad howl of his mom after the death of her father.

Back then he howled out of support for his mom and sadness for the loss of his grandfather, but this time it was him calling out, it was his animal nature reaching out seeking comfort. As his cries of sorrow flowed into the outside world, rain began to flow from the heavens to cover the city in its warm embrace, for the city too cried out for peace, peace enough to hopefully end this outbreak of danger and fear. That sad howl trapped under the clouds spread throughout the city, it echoed through Little Rodentia, it spread like the falling snow in Tundratown, it spread like the sands in Sahara Square, and it spread like the fog in the Rainforest district. But most of all; it spread like depression to all canines in the city. They all heard the sad fox crying out alone in the world, and they all felt his sad emotions reaching out.

*hoooowwwwl* *hoooowwwwl* *hoooowwwwl* wolves, foxes, and coyotes all cried out in their shared sadness. Through a sad howl one could reach out to any hearts open to hear it. And those hearts then reached back out, showing their support to through the sounds echoing through the night. That night every mammal in the city howling or not, felts its pain and shared its sorrow.

* * *

Light brown ear tips flickered in their sleep as a fox in her mid forties stirred in her sleep hearing the sad call of another fox, "Nick my baby, don't be sad. Please smile for mommy…" the fox whispered in her sleep as she wrapped her arms around her long tail.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

And that is chapter two! So did it please? I thought it was a little better than chapter one in my opinion, but then again I always liked this that pull at my heartstrings. Let me know what you think.

Okay so I think I'm going to be updating this story every week towards the end of the week, while also updating my other fic sometime in the beginning. I've been able to write about half a chapter every few days so I think I might be able to handle two fics at a time, especially if I stagger the updates, but of course I am open for suggestions. See you next time!


	3. Discoveries

**Chapter Notes:**

This chapter takes place the day after the last chapter, and is now 2 days after the press conference.

* * *

 **Discoveries:**

It was early in the morning, early for nearly every mammal in the city, or late for those who live a nocturnal life. But for Judy there was no time right now. She had tossed and turned all night, how could she have slept with her mind running a mile a minute. Her and officer Wolfred had spent hours looking into the stone age history of every predator gone savage, they managed to gather an impressive stack of papers filled with different habits of the animals of the past. Information including what they did, why they did it, and what it resulted in. Most of the data gathered came from professional scientists, but even then they were all just theories. But by the end of the night after reading and rereading everything they had gathered going over every detail in her head she had gotten only steps from where they were.

However she did managed to get some sleep, but only enough to want more than she had before her alarm chirped out in the dark. _beep beep be-_ unlike how the rabbit normally jumped for the alarm and rushed getting ready, not because she late but because she was Judy Hopps, because today she just didn't feel like _Judy Hopps_. She had woken up in the night hearing howls coming from somewhere in the city, it didn't sound like the howl she forced from the wolves at the lab or from the officers at the office, it sounded sad. It felt sad, it felt broken, it felt empty, and today; so did she. As she walked to work the streets were still damp with rain, a few puddles here and there, a few clouds still lingering in the dim light as the sun peaked over the horizon.

By the time Judy had gotten to the precinct there were already groups of other officers lingering about talking over coffee, including officer Wolfred who was talking to Clawhauser at the front desk. "Yeah I heard it too it sounded so sad." She heard the cheetah saying.

"Are you guys talking about the howling last night?" she asked poking her ears up as she walked over to the desk.

"So you heard it too then?" Wolfred asked receiving a nod from the bunny.

"of course" Judy replied with a smirk as she pointed up as her ears. "I was half asleep when I heard it though, but it sounded different from when you howled yesterday." She said blankly.

"That was you howling upstairs?" Clawhauser asked shocked before chuckling "Why were you howling?" he said with laughter in his cheeks.

"She started it!" he said trying to hiding his embarrassment and pointed the blame at the rabbit. "And yes it was different Judy, it was sad."

"Sad? How can you tell?" the other two asked

The wolf scratched his face trying to think of how to answer the question, because there was no yes or no answer. Either you can feel the difference between howls or you can't, its as simple as that, but there was no real reasoning behind it. "I don't know, it just felt…heavy. Just hearing it made me feel sad, I guess that's how I could tell." He said leaving time for the other two to think for a moment, "But it wasn't a wolf either." He added as he remembered thinking last night.

"But I thought only wolves howled?" Clawhauser asked confusedly just before Judy could as her own question.

"No, foxes and coyotes can howl too, but I've heard they only howl with they are extremely depressed." He said trying to think back to where he learned it from, "And they don't get strong urges to howl back or at the moon like wolves do." ' _Lucky them_ ' he thought to himself remembering all the times he had howled at the moon getting strange looks from passersby.

There were tons of canines that lived in the diverse city, and even several breeds for each canine family. But yet the only only mammal she could think of was Nick. He traveled all through her mind, he was always somewhere in the foreground pushing her to find and answer, and always somewhere in the background reminding her not to give up. The thought of him being so sad so depressed that he would cry out in a howl late on a rainy night brought tears to her amethyst eyes and sniffles to her button nose.

Both Wolfred and Clawhauser heard the sniffling and turned to look as their conversation faded away, they both saw the teary eyed officer lost in her thoughts making her eyes even more glossy until finally a tear cascaded down her fur. "Awww Judy come here." Said the feline as he stood from his chair and walked over to her wrapping his yellow arms around her, "It's okay just let it out."

Wolfred stood back as he watch the officer embrace their small friend as she wiped her tears off, everyone knew that Clawhauser was a gentle officer, but not many got to know him well enough to know just how caring he could be. Judy really was something special to the ZPD.

"It's just- that I can't stop- thinking about my friend- Nick" she said between sniffles as she tried to compose herself ' _Officers don't cry. Officers don't cry._ ' She kept telling herself as she forced the tears to stop, still with shaky breaths she continued "He was the one who helped me solve the case."

"Nick is the fox from the other day?" Wolfred asked finally understanding why she was so distraught, even he could tell how upset the fox was as he watched from an upper balcony.

Before Judy could respond the building speakers sparked to life with chief Bogo's voice, "All available officers there is an a riot outbreak in Savanna Central, Central mall! I repeat, all available officers there is an a riot outbreak in Savanna Central, Central mall! Go down there and break it up, use of tranquilizers is permitted!" And like that the chaos rush of officers hurrying to their squad cars.

"Hopps with me!" Wolfred called out as they raced away saying goodbye to Clawhauser. Judy hoped into the passenger seat of the vehicle as her current partner revved the engine to life. Every car had its lights and sirens blaring as the followed chief Bogo leading them in his car. The blew through traffic without any accidents and surrounded the front of the mall with all getting out and going in on foot.

*ROOAARR* the sound ripped through the mall just as the officers entered the main floor lobby met by a rush of screaming and frantic citizens, and sent a wave of panic into many of the smaller officers, especially Judy; one of three prey family mammals present, including cheif Bogo and officer McHorn. But unlike them Judy didn't have large horns or stature capable of fighting off even the largest of criminals. While the instincts to fight and survive burned through the predatory officers and even the two previously mentioned a much different instinct burned through Judy's thoughts.

 _danger. Danger. Run. RUN!_ The situation now was nothing like with Nick and Gideon, at those times she was a little worried and startled, but here she was was petrified in sheer horror. She could see it in her eyes what would happened if she went into the tigers sight, she saw the play she acted out as a kid flash before her eyes, only now there was no props or friendly smile.

"ALL UNITS BE ADVISED, SAVAGE SIGHTING REPORTED AT THE SCENE!" Clawhauser's voice yelled to warn them, "A female white and black striped tiger has been reported on all fours threatening other mammals." His voice came through every officer's radio, the static and new sounds snapped Judy out of her internal panic.

"Chief what do we do?!" Officer McHorn yelled out from beside the cape buffalo.

Pulling his tranq rifle from his back and loading the syringe he turned his head at all the mammals in blue. "This is now a rescue mission! Save as many citizens as you can and don't go in without backup. McHorn, Ramirez, follow my lead!" He said rushing forward despite the danger prowling in wait.

They were lucky when they arrived at the center of the mall they found only three mammals. A young light orange tiger cub maybe about eight years old with a trail of red streaking the side of his face crying. The mentioned tigres crawling down low on the floor with her claws leaving marks and the tile and her fangs bared menacingly at the third mammal; a ram holding a sign with a crossed out picture of a predator's sharp teeth, who was shaking in the corning.

With a silent hoof gesture from chief Bogo two wolf and a lion officers approached the cub slowly from behind the savage tiger, but the sudden orange paw startled him into a scream. "Mommy!"

*ROOAARR* and with that the tiger was quickly on top of the lion officer. She pinned him down and let out another blood curdling roar inches from his own muzzle scaring him stiff.

*tick* the sound of a syringe embedding itself into her side from chief Bogo's rifle pulled her away from the lion to roar at the her new attacker as she stepped between him and the cub. She let out a dangerous growl but made no move to attack as two wolves pulled their teammate to safety by his vest. "Mommy!" The cub cried out as he wrapped his paws around the white striped tail waving in front of him.

All the officers froze, not a single breath was made as they all feared the worst, they all feared bearing witness to the tigres turning an mauling the cub. But what happened was something none of them had suspected. *meeerrr* the sound bubbled up from the savage mammal's throat with no aggression as she turned to face to cub as she swayed side to side. She staggered twice as she stepped over and wrapped her tail around the cub and pulled him into her side as she collapsed around him finally out cold from the dart in her side.

The light orange cub began shaking her shoulders as hot tears poured from his face, "mommy? Mommy wake up. Mommy…" his voice cut out through the tears.

' _Mommy?_ ' Thought Judy. All the officers present were confused over what happened till they hear a sigh of relief come from the forgotten ram in the corner.

"See I told you she was a vicious _pred_!" He barked as he slid down the wall, that slur earned him a growl from several officers. "Yeah you heard me, the lot of you _preds_ too!" He yelled pointing at the force, earning more growls and snarls.

"McHorn, Ramirez take care of the tiger. Wolfred, Hopps, call it in. Everyone else go report in. " he ordered stomping over the ram, "And you. Why don't you tell me what happened, _bah bah black sheep_." The chief commanded with a threatening glare that burned through the rams eyes.

As the rhino and polar bear partners cuffed the legs and arms of the tiger Wolfred went over to comfort the still crying cub producing a sucker from his breast pocket. "Here you go little guy." He said as the feline took the candy and began sucking on it.

Judy finished telling the station what happened and requested a squad van to transport the tiger currently under guard from the large officers. "Hey there big guy." She greeted nicely to the young tiger, him already being decently larger than her. "Do you know what happened?" She asked as she pressed the record button on another carrot pen she had rather than using it to write it down.

"Me and mommy were shopping when that ram started yelling at mom and swinging the sign." He started with a sniffle as he sucked on the candy still. Both the rabbit and the wolf were shocked to hear this, "And then he tried to hit mommy but hit me in the head with the sign." He said putting his furry paw on the bleeding welt.

Officer Wolfred pulled out some bandages and tapped them to the cubs head. "This is going to hurt a little but it's going to help you feel better." He assured the cub, as the bandages had a little numbing medicine on them.

With a little whimper from the pressure he continued his story, "and then mommy pushed him away. But her fur started getting pointy and she started growling at him. Then she fell on her paws and started roaring like this; _roar_!" He explained and demonstrated giving a baby roar to the officers.

At the same time they were getting the story from the cub chief Bogo was getting it from the ram, "Alright fine, I'll tell you." He said to the figure looming over him. "Me and some other protesters were here telling those _preds_ to get lost, and I guess I bumped the kid by accident or something because then the lady just shoved me." He stated while tapping his hooved fingers together.

"Go on." Bogo said sternly leaning closer.

"Well and then that," he said pointing at the tiger. "She just went fricken nuts and attacked me like a savage."

Chief Bogo looked over at the predator lying unconscious on the floor and then to the cub telling his story to officers Hopps and Wolfred, he thought back to what she had told him yesterday, ' _I think someone might be threatening them or attacking them_ ' her words ran through his head clear as day. "I'm going to need to take you down to the station." He said with anger lacing his words as he cuffed the ram. And left him, "Don't move." He threatened with a hooved finger to the others face.

"Chief Bogo there's something you need to hear." Judy said as she left the cub to talk to officer Wolfred as she played the recording of the cub for the cape buffalo to hear. "I-I think she turned savage trying to protect her son." She said with a faced that showed the amount of thought in her analysis. "That's what moms do, they protect their young! She just couldn't fight off her nature to save her kid!" She exclaimed out loud to herself more than to the chief.

While being a large mammal, chief Bogo had no shortage of brains, and he too began to see the connection as a strong possibility just as Judy saw, "I'm going to take him in for questioning, when the van gets here they'll take her down to the the facilities to run their tests. Until we found a relative you and officer Wolfred are to watch over the cub, understood?" He told her and asked making sure that she had understood.

"Yes sir." She retorted before heading back over to her temporary partner and told him what she was told. By the time they had gotten back to his squad car the transport had already shone up and they were also beginning to load the still unconscious tiger.

"Is my mommy going to be alright?" the cub asked seeing his mom put into the van.

"She is going to be just fine, they are going to take her to the hospital to go feel better." Judy said to him while putting her paws on his shoulders. "Hey, I completely forgot to ask you, what's your name?" Judy said in a high voice trying to cheer up the young tiger as she opened the back door for him.

"My name is Johnny!" he exclaimed happily after he had climbed up into the back seat. "what's your name?"

"That's a really cool name. My name is Judy." She said as she sat next to him in the back so he didn't feel in trouble or alone. "And that's my friend Wolfred she said pointing to her fellow officer at the wheel.

The rest of the ride back to the station Judy kept Johnny busy with telling him stories about herself and playing games like eyespy. Once they had gotten back they all went up to Judy's cubical, Wolfred had picked up some forms to fill out for both him and Judy so they can report what they witnessed. "Johnny do you have any family that lives in Zootopia besides your mom?" Judy asked as she began to boot up her computer.

"Yeah, my grandma and grandpa. They live by the train station, it's really busy there." He said as he doodled on a paper that Judy had given him with a set of crayons from the front desk.

"Do you know their names?" Wolfred asked looking at the feline.

"Grandpa calls grandma Luran, and grandma calls grandpa Matthew." He responded taking a moment to examine his art before grabbing a new color. What looked like shapes and streaks of colors to Judy and Wolfred was a work of art to him, but despite them not seeing what he saw they liked seeing him happy.

Judy punched the information into the computer data base and got one matching result of a Loran Sarahvan married to a Mathew Sarahvan and best of all their address was close to the station just like Johnny had said. She picked up her desk phone and dialed the number listed.

"Hello?" an elderly male grated with question at the unknown number.

"High is this Matthew Sarahvan?" Wolfred heard Judy ask to the grandpa on the other line. "I'm officer Judy Hopps with the ZPG, there was an incident in town today and we have your grandson Johnny here with us." A muffled reply from Mr. Sarahvan was heard from her phone. "I'm sorry sir I don't know how she is doing, but you or your wife could come down to the precinct to take care of him till your daughter is better." She said choosing her words carefully so that she didn't cause them to panic. After finishing their conversation Judy hung up politely and told the two with her that the grandparents were on there way, this earned a very happy response from the little cub.

"Yay! I like going to grandma's house!" He cheered animatedly throwing his paws into the air.

* * *

A moose scientist looked over lab results thoroughly making sure she didn't miss a single number on the paper showing new data collected from the white furred tiger that had just arrived at the facility when she heard a muffled banging on the wall followed by a loud yelling. Now this was far more interesting to her than reading over the numbers printed on the paper, and thought it best to check out the source of the sound. She walked across the room to the monitor station that had a live feed from each of the cells that the savage animals were in, they were up to eighteen now with the addition of the lion, tiger, and a weasel brought in shortly after; they outbreaks were beginning to happen faster. This fact worried many of the scientists at the facility, at first they found out from the Cliffside reports that it was only one outbreak every few days, but then after the press conference it was discovered that the rate now increased by day, leading them to think that it truly was in a predator's biology to hunt and kill.

Her eyes glanced over each screen seeing nothing different that the last time she looked at them, until she saw a change in the polar bear in cell nine, she gasped in shock as she saw her standing on her hind legs banging on the walls yelling. Seeing this the scientist paged her supervisor urgently as she watched the feed turning up it's volume to hear waiting for his arrival.

"What is it Dr. Alces?" A badger dressed in similar lab attire said as he walked through the steel doorway. "Have you found something?" He asked as he walked up behind her and followed her gaze before gasping himself, "How long has she been like this?"

"I heard banging through the walls a few minutes ago that's when I looked at the feed and paged you right away."

The badger switched a dial to nine as he brought a microphone stand on the desk to himself. "Hello, Mrs. Lera, can you hear me?" He voice crackled to life through the speakers of the cell.

The mentioned Mrs. Lera looked up at the camera and speaker mounted in the corner. "Who are you? And where am I?!" She asked with fear in her voice.

"She's responding Dr. Shaw! This is a huge breakthrough!" Said exclaimed putting her hooves paws on the others shoulders shaking him slightly showing her excitement.

Rubbing his ears from the ringing he looked back at her from over his shoulders, "yes this is indeed a big discovery. Go prepare room three for testing." He told her before she hurried out of the room to do so. He flipped the microphone back on to speak, "I am Dr. Shaw, I am the lead supervisor here at these facilities. Mrs. Lera, you had gone missing a few weeks ago and were then found in a lab where you were acting ' _savage_ ' do you remember any of this?"

"No, I woke up here and my head was killing me. The last thing I remember was walking home after visiting a friend in the Rain Forest district."

"I am going to come down to take you for an evaluation. We need to make sure that you are not at risk for going ' _savage_ ' anymore." He explained to her getting a complained response.

* * *

Mrs. Lera was laying on her back in a PET scan answering another series of questions from the badger, she had previously taken a CT scan as well as a MRI while answering other questions. The Dr. had told her that the tests were to see how her brain was functioning in comparison to when she was ' _savage_ ' as well as against a baseline average for polar bears.

"Alright Mrs. Lera, that is the last of these tests. Now all we need is a blood sample then we will have you taken to a hospital room in the facilities." He said while having the machine pull her out from its scanner. "And yes, as promised you will get your food there in the room." He said rolling his eyes, all the tests together had taken a few hours and nearly every half an hour she would complain about being hungry.

"Finally, I'm starved." She said as she took the wires and nodes off her fur. During the testing Dr. Shaw had learned a lot about Mrs. Lera. He learned from her attitude and responses that she is a very relaxed and active mammal who doesn't seem to have any temperament issues that would have caused her outbreak, this fact intrigued him greatly because now he thought there was a possibility of the cause being external.

As Dr. Alces took her blood and lead her to the hospital room in the upstairs area he looked over some of the raw data, and he found yet another interesting discovery; her brains signs and activities were now almost normal. While in her savage state it was impossible to conduct these tests without having her heavily sedated to remain still and keep from destroying the machines, much the same for the others who are still being held below. But because that sedation they couldn't get a clear read on brain activity they still showed some results.

Her frontal and parietal lobes weren't showing much activity which resulted in her having little to no thought, intellect, judgment, personality, language, or comprehension to rely on. Her sensory cortex at the time appeared to be far above average activity granting her senses all and extreme increase in performance. Her body was also not producing serotonin, preventing her from feeling any emotion aside from anger and fear, and to make issues worse her body was producing excess _Drosophila*_ because of this her aggression levels only skyrocketed.

He took these results down to the main lab where he the top scientists in their sections of the group discussed the phenomena. While the facilities scientists still haven't figured out what was causing this drastic and problematic change in mental functions they had found similar results in all the mammals that had gone savage. But Mrs. Lera 'waking up' is the first change or breakthrough they have had. He pulled out his cell phone and call both the mayor's office and the chief of the ZPD in a conference call. Both of which have had a serious interest in the case for obvious concern of the city.

"Mayor Bellwether, Chief Bogo, this is a conference call between the three of us. I am Dr. Shaw, the person in charge of the facilities taking care of the savage mammals." He introduced to them both. "There has been an exciting discovery today. One of the mammals has 'woken up'." He said in an upbeat tone as he kept looking over the files.

"What?" Both voices sounded back simultaneously, chief Bogo's deeper voice covering over the mayor's.

"Mrs. Lera, the polar bear, was standing upright in her cell calling out for help." He started and continued to explain the rest of the day's testing and results. "However she is still the only one so far and we still are not sure of what the cause of outbreak might be, nor why she woke up first. So until we have more information regarding this I recommend we keep it out of the news."

"Oh that's just so great to hear! Keep up the good work Dr.!" the sheep exclaimed enthusiastically through the speaker, with an agreement from the chief.

"Well I have results to study, reports to write, but I will call the both of you if anything else happens he said before hanging up the call.

* * *

A stapler lay scattered on the floor after being thrown against the door. A low and dangerous growl came through a snarl made with flat teeth as hooved fingers drummed the desktop, rage and hate burned inside those fingers as the teeth grinded together.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

And that my readers would be chapter three, how did you guys like it? I was having a bit of trouble with this one so it probably seemed a little forced, but I felt I needed to get out some technical information and what not while also staying on schedule.

 _Drosophila*_ While trying to find information and facts about aggression and the brain I found an article of sorts that talked about a few things relating to the topic, one of which being a type of fly that was being bred for testing, which they had named _Drosophila_ or something like that. If you want to know details let me know and I can send the link in a review reply.

Until we meet again!-


	4. Awakening

**Chapter Notes:**

EARLY CHAPTER! :D Hope you enjoy!-

This one follows the day of the last chapter (now 3 days after the press conference) where Mrs. Lera woke up and the Dr. called chief Bogo and mayor Bellwether.

* * *

 **Awakening:**

A phone screeched out as the sun flooded in through bent tin blinds, it screeched out until it stopped, but then picked back up again immediately. An angry groan came from a pile of wool sprawled over an old bed. A hooved finger swiped to answer without even looking at the name, "You better have a good reason for calling me so early." His tired voice came out with a yawn.

"You better have a good reason for not answering my call the first time, Doug." a threatening high pitched voice came out through the speaker.

"Mrs. Bellwether!" the male ram shot up to now fully awake, "I'm sorry boss I was up late last night making another batch of darts." He said shaking slightly.

"That's exactly why I called you. The animals are snapping out of it." The sheep's voice said, "Why aren't they staying savage?!" she demanded from him.

"I-I don't know. I didn't even know they would ever snap out of it." He said trying to defend himself from the small yet threatening mayor. "It might be the darts aren't strong enough, they are big mammals right? The ones waking up." He tried to reason.

Bellwether pinched the bridge of her nose with her free paw and let and a huff. "Yes, it was the polar bear. She is the only one who has woken up so far."

"I tried telling you before this would happen, polar bears burn through things fast and then the dart wasn't strong either."

"Then fix it! How many darts do you have left?!" She once again shouted into her phone.

"Uhh I think there's eight left of the batch at the lab." Doug said scratching the back of his head.

"How long will it take you to make the darts stronger?" Bellwether asked trying to work out this obstacle in her head.

The ram thought back to the basic equipment he had back at his lad currently had "I would need to get some better equipment, depending on how strong you want it." He said considering what it was he would need to do to make the darts more potent.

"I don't want it to ever wear off! I don't want the news spreading hope for a cure, I want them to spread fear!" The sheep snarled as her pupils twitched shakily. "Get whatever equipment you need, I want those new darts!" She said before slamming her finger to hang up cracking the screen slightly. She emitted a low and dangerous growl as she put up a false smile and headed out to the office.

* * *

A red van with rolled up and over the old stone bridge as it approached the abandoned warehouse, its exhaust shooting off once while it came to a stop in front of the cracked open doors. A small light furred fox walked through the doorway wearing a black shirt with a neutral frown on his face. He walked a little ways in looking for a certain red fox, and sure enough he found him curled up asleep on the seat of the beaten up black chair he always sat in. "Hey wake up." His deep voice broke through the quiet getting no response. Finnick rolled his brown eyes and spoke louder this time, "Nick, wake up." with an added flick to Nick's nose; that did the trick.

 _pain_. Nick gave a small yelp at the sharp pain on his nose and his dangerous green eyes flashed open and locked onto the fox in front of him as he barred his teeth and growled warningly for the other to back away, and successfully getting it to do so. The Nick that Finnick had came to see was gone, his mind had been lost to his sorrows over a day ago and had been taken back by the primal nature with him. His fur began to point up and his tail twisted above him much the same a primitive fox would have to frighten off attackers, he stepped off the chair getting ready to pounce but he made no move to charge the fox in front of him.

Foxes were rumored to be one of the smarter mammals even before mammals began overcoming their natures, it was even rumored that foxes were one of the first to make the change thanks to their cunning mind; and using the primal cunning mind the savage Nick was taking in the fox before him. What stopped him from lunging was not the fact that the small fox was glaring back, nor the fact that he had no fear of the situation, or that he even seemed to be challenging him, but the fact that his scent seemed so familiar to the savage fox.

"Snap out of it!" Finnick barked raising a paw over his head in intimidation hoping to have a positive effect over a negative one. The sound of his voice was also very familiar to the red fox. He knew this fox, he was close with this fox, they were a pack.

That voice. That scent. That figure. Nick slowly lowered his tail and back to normal levels; well normal for a stone age fox. His snarl faded away as his brow unfurrowed, his muzzle returned to neutral, and his fur flattened back down. His slitted eyes shook and his vision blurred, a sharp pain shot through his head, it burned deep inside and it burned through his whole being. He thrashed his body trying to fighting off the pain, trying to fight off the self that was not his. "Fin...nick…" Nick's voice spoke raspy through a deep and pained growl.

Brown eyes widened up in hope and worry as they saw Nick thrashing about on the floor, "Alright, there you go Nick." he said lowering his paw and softening his face ever so slightly.

Emerald eyes slowly returned to their normal shape and Nick blinked his eyes and shook his head side to side still under a slight daze. He looked to find himself on his front paws and knees on the floor and pushed himself into a sitting position propping his elbows on his knees and his face in his padded paws.

"You better?" Finnick asked hesitantly as he approached from the side and placed a firm paw on Nick's shoulder.

The red fox lifted his head and looked over the tan fox standing beside him, "What happened to me?" He asked with confusion . Finnick told him what had happened from when he arrived at the abandoned hideout. "D- did I hurt anyone? Did I hurt you?" He asked now with concern.

"I doubt it, you were asleep when I got here."

After a heavy moment of silence Nick spoke again, "Finnick I need you to do me a favor."

"It'll cost you." He smirked having no intentions of collecting on that debt.

"I need you to pick something for me." Nick said, his mind still clouded by depression and filled with regret, not bothering to look up at the other. Nick's mind was back to its own self, and with that with wallow and depression that previously consumed him whole.

"What did you need?"

With a heavy sigh Nick debated telling the other fox or changing his mind. ' _Can I do it? Can I really go through with it?_ ' Deciding against his better judgment he spoke what it was. The request not only broke through the silence, it also broke the heart of his partner to hear such a thing.

Finnick was shocked, he was almost horrified at the request. Because he knew what was going through Nick's mind, he knew what it was Nick was planning. "Nick I-"

"Fine, I'll get it myself." the red fox interrupted know that the smaller one wasn't willing to go through with it. He was going to do this, he wasn't going to risk hurting anyone, he wasn't going to risk losing himself again to his savage nature.

* * *

Back at the facility lab they were having another exciting day filled with new occurrences, the tigress brought in just yesterday had finally woken up from the tranq darts. But the exciting part of that was she was responsive and communicative. She had undergone the same few hours of testing that Mrs. Lera had the day before and the results came back similar, after her tests were completed Dr. Shaw had ordered that all the remaining savage animals be sedated and retested. However as luck would have it for the facilities another savage 'woke up' as well; he was a reddish orange tiger and also the first to have gone savage based on the Cliffside lab information.

"These past two days we have made more progress than the Cliffside lab did in weeks." One of the Drs. present at the board meeting said, "and it helps us that we don't have to hide our research out from the public."

"We are fortunate to finally have a breakthrough, but we are not any closer to finding a cause or a cure." Replied Dr. Shaw. The seven Drs. all discussed different aspects of the raw data they had gotten from the recent series of tests and 'wakings' before finally coming to some form of agreement on part of the results.

Using the data they compiled those present had a strong hypothesis that whatever was causing the savage outbreaks was affected by metabolism and time. This conclusion was reached by looking at the data gathered from the polar bear and the tiger, while the ursa was the eighth case she was the first to recover and the tiger who was the first case was the second to recover. With this in mind the scientists were able to factor in the metabolisms and body mass' for both mammals. Most importantly from that hypothesis the team began making predictions based on the data they have been collecting to guess which mammals would wake up and when.

But no matter what way they looked at the data and results, the tigress brought in having recovered after only a day didn't conform to or fit with any ideas or thoughts on the matte. Only showing that there was much information that the facilities was missing still.

After the six heads of departments left from the meeting room it was shortly after noon and Dr. Shaw remained in the room to look over his own notes and to give the chief and mayor a progress update. "Ah chief Bogo, mayor Bellwether. It's Dr. Shaw again." He greeted to them as they both picked up the call receiving similar greetings in response.

"I wanted to call the both of you to let you know about the progress we are making down here at the facilities. First of the first victim woke up this early morning along with the female tiger that was brought in."

"A female tiger?" Mayor Bellwether asked curiously. She was the one who picked the targets to be darted, and never once heard about this female tiger. She became furious with the thought of Doug beginning to target his own choices or with the chance that he missed his mark, but she didn't know which she thought was worse at the moment.

"Yes, she went savage at Savanna Central's Central Mall. It was called in when we arrived on scene to break up a riot." Chief Bogo explained to her as he was looking at case files debating what file to give to what officers.

"Yes well like I said, she has woken up after being at our facilities for less than a day." Dr. Shaw stated out of his own interest in her case looking over her lab files, "She won't give us her full cooperation until we do so it appears."

"But we can't let a savage animal that close to anyone let alone a small child." The sheep of the group spoke up trying to convince them other wise.

"Well that's the thing, I wouldn't list her condition as ' _savage_ ' after having woken up responsive. She seems to be in full control of her thoughts and actions from the test we were able to convince her to take." The Dr. said leaning back in his chair. "Besides we can deal with the still savage mammals _almost_ without incident at this point." He added with a tone that wasn't clearly good or bad.

"I need to talk to her first before anything else." The chief's voice came through the speakers groughly. "She was involved in a recent case and I need to get her statement." He explained.

"That's fine by me. We are curious here at the facilities on how she would behave with other mammals around rather than us." The badger said.

"I want to see for myself too." Mayor Bellwether chimed in before the conversation moved on. She needed to see this strange occurrence herself.

"Alright, why don't you both come by in an hour, there are still some things I need to take care of in the meantime." The Dr. told them receiving an agreement from both parties. "Okay I'll be sure to get you two at the front office, see you soon." He said neutrally before going back to his office to look over new files that had came in with the arrival of another savage mammal; this time it was another leopard.

* * *

Judy was standing by the coffee table in the lobby of the facility housing the savage animals reading over there case file for the tigress they took in the other day trying to see if there was anything out of the ordinary about her case compared to the others. She had pestered the chief into letting her go with him to the lab when he said he was going to be questioning her. Said officer was pacing a hole in the floor as his feet stepped on the ground heavily, he was not one who was often kept waiting. The current mayor had shone up minutes ago and was standing with Judy asking her about herself and how the job has been with all the savage outbreaks.

"You guys are here early." Said Dr. Shaw as he opened the door from the other side, "And who might you be?" He asked looking down slightly at Judy.

"This is officer Judy Hopps, she is one of the officers working the case." Chief Bogo told him as he stepped over to the door.

"Yes I see, well right this way." He said leading them to the elevator in the hallway taking them up to the hospital section of the facilities. "We have Mrs. Lera in a room down the hall, but this is Mrs. Sarahvan's room." He said opening the door for them to enter first.

"I told you my name is Alison. And where's my son." She glared at all the party members as they walked in. Her voice threatening and low. "I told you I'm not doing anymore test till I see my son!" She yelled at the Dr..

"And you will, but these people have some questions for you first." He said stepping aside for the chief to step forward.

"I am chief of ZPD precinct one, chief Bogo." he said very sternly almost challenging the Tiger.

"Where. Is. My. Son." she demanded of him standing up from her chair in the corner with a snarl on her muzzle and fire burning in her white eyes.

"Mrs. Alison, if you keep it up we will have to muzzle you again."

"Alison?" Judy called out stepping out in front of her chief gaining the attention of everyone in the room. "I'm officer Judy Hopps."

"I know who you are, you are the one who said going savage is in our biology." She glared at the rabbit below her.

It went unseen by the others but in the back the mayor was grinning a dangerous grin. ' _Yes it is in your biology, stupid predator._ '

"I was wrong to say that." Judy spoke up with shame in her voice and amethyst eyes. "But I wanted to tell you your son is safe with your parents, they picked him up yesterday morning." She explained successfully calming down the tiger.

Alison relaxed her shoulders and let out a sigh of relief knowing her son was okay. Dr. Shaw gave a grunt at this seeing how quickly this information stopped the temperament that had been giving him problems for a few hours now. "Can I speak with him first?" She asked with hope in her voice to the rabbit.

Judy looked up to her chief for guidance and he gave a nod before stepping back to give them space seeing as the predator wasn't being hostile anymore. Judy pulled out her phone and gave it to Alison who typed in the number for her dad. "Hello? Who's this?" His elderly voice called through the phone.

"Dad it's Alison." She said with a smile hearing a familiar voice. "Is Johnny okay? Is he hurt?" She asked into the phone getting the full attention of the Dr. as he began jotting down some notes.

"Yes, we took him to the hospital to get his head checked out but they told us it was just a scratch. But they gave us some cream to help with the healing." He said before a mumbled voice was heard through the phone. "Hold on."

"Hi mommy." Johnny's voice came out through the speaker.

The female's eyes began to water at the sound of her son. She had been so worried about him, worried that something bad had happened to him. She had remembered him being hurt, but didn't remember anything after that. "Hi baby. Are you having fun with grandpa?" She asked with a watery voice to match her watery eyes.

"Yeah. Grandpa and grandma got me ice cream." He said happily without a care in the world. "When are you coming home mommy? I want to show you my picture."

"Mommy will be home soon, I have to do some things first okay sweetheart." She explained to him. "How are you feeling? Is your head okay?" She asked him still concerned for her little cub.

"Yeah, the Dr said I am a big tiger because I didn't cry when he checked it, and then he gave me a sticker. And the nice police wolf gave me a sucker! And then the police bunny played games with me!" He said animatedly and happily.

Chief Bogo turned to Judy curiously at the comment and Alison mouthed a quiet thank you to her, but it was clear she felt very grateful for her kindness to her son knowing the tensions in the air about predator and prey standings. "Mommy has to go now okay sweety? But I will call you when I can. I love you Johnny." She added.

"I love you too mommy." His pure and innocent voice came through bringing tears to his mom's eyes and to Judy's as well. She always loved seeing other mammals happy with her family, and this scene was becoming very emotional for her.

"Are you going to be alright Alison?" Her dad asked taking the phone back from his grandson.

"Yeah, they just need to clear up a few things at the hospital first." She told him as she wiped her eyes with her free paw.

"Alright give me a call and I will come pick you up at any time. Don't worry, I'll take care of Johnny for you." He said before she gave him her thanks and hanging up.

She handed the phone back to Judy as she sat back down in her chair. "Thank you officer Hopps." She smiled fondly having glad to hear from her son.

"Please, call me Judy." she returned just as fond. "We have some questions we want to ask you about what happened the other day at the mall. Why don't you start with telling us what happened?" She started pulling out her pen to write down her statement this time.

"Well I had taken Johnny to the mall to buy him and me some new clothes, and we were shopping like we normally do, but there were a few angry looks from some...mammals." She said cautiously.

"Were they prey family mammals? We would like you to be as specific as you can." Chief Bogo spoke up.

"Yes, they were different members of the prey family." She started again. "There has been a lot of discrimination since the speech." She said with a glance to Judy, who then began to feel bad for what she had said once again.

"So you just attacked a ram because he was a prey family?" Bellwether asked stepping beside Judy. Chief Bogo looked at her and studied her for a minute before Alison spoke out.

"No! I didn't attack anyone!" She snapped her head towards the mayor with anger in her eyes at the accusation. "He was yelling at me and waving a sign around about being anti predator. And then he hit Johnny on the head when he swung it at me…" she carried off.

"What happened next Alison?" Judy asked while finishing up that last part.

In the back of the room the Dr. was still collecting his own notes fascinated with her memory of the events. He had tried to see what all Mrs. Lera had remembered before going savage, but she wasn't able to remember anything a few minutes prior to her report coming to the cliffside lab. But Mrs. Sarahvan seems to remember up till the instant that she went savage.

"When the ram hit Johnny I just- I-" she let out a deep sigh as she dropped her head to look down, "He hit my cub, my baby boy. I was just so angry I felt like my head was burning, and I just snapped. I don't remember anything after that, but then I woke up here." She admitted to the group.

Everyone was looking at her with different expressions, chief Bogo's face was stern, Judy's was curious, Dr. Shaw's eyes were narrowed with interest, but Bellwethers face was blank and unreadable. "See. Judy was right, it is just in a predator's biology." The sheep said getting the attention from everyone else.

"No that's not right, that's not the truth." Judy turned to her having to once again face her mistake. "At the time I thought that's what it was, but now I know it isn't."

"What do you mean?" Bellwether asked with a slight frown.

Judy sighed and looked at the predator, "she wasn't attacking the ram, she was deffending her son. There's a difference."

"And what about all the other savages?"

"I-"

"We did not come here to question my officer, mayor Bellwether." Chief bogo interrupted stepping between the two small mammals and looking down at her. "We came to talk to Mrs. Sarahvan."

The whole time the small conflict was going on Dr. Shaw listened closely to what Judy had to say, ' _that might be the idea I have been looking for._ ' He thought as he jotted down what she was saying. As things calmed down the chief asked his last few questions as Judy wrote everything down and they made their leave having gotten everything they needed.

As the mayor left to go to a meeting Judy told the chief she had to check on something first and had the Dr take her down to Mr. Otteron where she saw his wife there at this window. She waited with her for a few minutes before having to return back to her chief. She tried her best to comfort her in the hopes it would make the process easier for the otter. On the way down to that floor she asked the Dr about the other predators 'waking up' besides Alison, who the badger said was a special case compared to all the others.

He told her that the conference group believes that when the mammals wakes up is tied to the metabolism, size, and the amount of time sense whatever happened happened. Meaning that do to his incredibly small size, Mr. Otterton would be the last to come to his senses in at least a few months.

But that information would only give false hopes to the distraught wife, rather than helping her, so instead she just said that things would get better soon, she hopped.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

Well that's another chapter done. I was running into writers block so this one is kinda rushed and forced just so I could get some needed information into the chapter about the differences between Alison and the other cases. Let me know your thoughts in the reviews!

Oh one more thing, so I know this isn't done and what not, don't worry I will finish this fic. But an end is coming into sight, not it the next few chapters, but it is coming. So I wanted to know what you guys thought about a sequel story to fallow this one once it's done. You can say in the reviews or PM me, but let me know either way.

Until next time!-


	5. The Change

**Chapter Notes:**

It's been 2 days after the ZPD questions Alison Sarahvan about her breakout incident. And we are now 5 days after the conference, and 2 days before the peace rally. I am keeping these time markers to help myself and readers, also to keep track of how far away from the movie event the story is, seeing as there are only a few time frames given.

I want to take a moment to just say thanks to all of you who have read this far and I really hope you are enjoying the story, I know there are better out there so I'm happy to see so many here. Thank you reviewers named or guest, they mean a lot that you have good things to say.

* * *

 **The Change:**

It was mid day at the ZPD and things were in full swing. There have been several fights breaking out across the city that needed officers to break up, all of which between predator and prey family mammals. Statements and witnesses didn't provide much but hint at acts of prejudice against the predator animals from smaller prey animals. Judy was sitting at her desk having been assigned paperwork today, and thus was stuck at her cubicle needing to enter in a list of files into the ZPD's digital records. Her stack of papers consisted of witness statements, evidence information, various reports, but most importantly information on savage outbreaks.

There was another two reports yesterday as well as one today. For the past few days now there has been a lot of contact from the lab giving the chief updates on the research progress and to inform them that another predator 'woke up' in the late morning and was showing similar readings to the previous ones, except Alison who was still an anomaly to the scientists.

As she typed off the information she kept reading similar word, ' _predator_ ' ' _vicious_ ' ' _dangerous_ '. With each report that went by and new one that came in Judy saw more discrimination and hatred building up and breaking out into firsts. What Judy saw was her press conference tearing the city she loved into two, and at the start of the tear, she saw herself standing at the podium.

Her ears were flopping and low, her usually bright vibrant eyes just a dull purple, her upbeat and go-getter persona cast down much like her sad gaze. It killed her to see the city as torn apart as it was, but what killed her even more was knowing that she is the one who tore it, all because she was just a dumb frightened bunny.

* * *

"This is mayor Bellwether." A cheery sheep greeted her ringing phone.

An all too familiar voice came through, "Hey Mrs. Bellwether, it's Doug."

A smile quickly turned into a dangerous scowl. "I told you not to contact me, I would contact you." She hissed with venom.

"I know, I know. I uh just wanted to let you know I just got the last of the equipment I needed to start the new batch."

The harsh scowl on the sheeps face lightened some at this, it was the first bit of good news she had heard in awhile. Well of course besides the occurrence of several animals going savage without being darted, and the city falling into chaos. "When will the first batch be ready?"

"I'll need about a day to calibrate everything, but I don't know how long it will take the new flowers to bloom, maybe a week." He explained nervous about the consequence for having to take so long.

And sure enough a low growl emitted itself from the tiny prey, "A week? You are telling me the next batch won't be ready for a week?!"

Doug was now cowering in fear of his life from the tiny ball of hate and rage. "Y-y-yes ma'am." He said as his wool shook around him.

An angry hooved finger came crashing down on the screen ending the call and cracking the screen further than it was from her last fit of rage. The mayor began pacing the floor in front of her window trying to think of a way to bide her time before the next batch would be ready. When a voice sounded through the desk phone's speaker, "Mayor Bellwether, Mrs. Gazelle is here to see you now."

' _The predator peace rally. Of course._ ' She thought as an idea turned in her mind to use the rally for peace to spread her fear. "Send her in." she told her assistant. A minute later the door opened and Gazelle walked in to find the sheep sitting at the large desk. "Gazelle, I'm glad you came by. Please come have a seat." She said with a perfect fact smile as she gestured to the chair on the other side of the desk.

"Thank you mayor Bellwether." The pop star said as she took the seat. "I wanted to talk to you about getting word out about the peace rally I talked to you over the phone about."

"And I just love the idea! As mayor of Zootopia I love the idea of a peace rally to put an end to this prejudice." The sheep said.

"I wanted to talk to you about the event, I hope that everything goes okay, but I'm worried about the safety of the people protesting. I don't want to see anyone getting hurt." Her hazel eyes showing deep concern.

Army green eyes flickered briefly in a flash of spite. "I was worried about the possibility too. I wouldn't want any savage predators hurting anyone."

"Mayor Bellwether, the problem isn't predators, the problem is prejudice." The antelope said trying to defend her beliefs, and the beliefs of her fellow protestors.

"I know, but we have to be aware of the risks." The sheep said to the larger prey. For the next half hour or so the two mammals discussed what the plan was for the event and what details needed to be taken care of before the rally take place.

* * *

Nick was sitting in his folding chair out by the stone bridge, it has been a few days since he had woken up on all fours with Finnick being there. And in that time he had managed to come down enough to finally enjoy the weather they were having in the city, he truly did enjoy the sun and breeze that was brushing through his fur. It felt nice for him to be out in the sun rather than cooped up alone in the abandoned building, and after the night that he cried he didn't feel so glum anymore.

With a grumble of his stomach he put down the drink he was sipping on. For the past few days he hasn't eaten, his depression to strong for him to feel the need to eat, but now that he wasn't so down he was starting to feel the effects of his poor choice.

As Nick walked around the back alleys of Zootopia to find a decent fast food place he heard a few cop cars rushing through the streets off to whatever it was that was going wrong. This jogged his mind about a certain officer that had changed the way he saw the world, even if only for a couple of days. They had been some of the most exciting and fun days he had had in a long time, and whether he would admit it to himself or not, he missed the banter they shared over those few days. He reached into his pocket and felt the hard plastic of the carrot pen she gave to him.

Emerald eyes studied it carefully as he turned it over in his paw, it was clearly a recorder. His brown finger pressed the button and his voice played out telling the worlds its incriminating secret. He smirked remembering Finnick's words ' _she hustled you. She hustled you good!_ '

"She sure did." He smiled as he put the pen back into his pocket still missing the little bunny but now happy at the memories he had to keep, and a pen. The red fox found a burger place him and Finnick both liked, and made a decision to grab a fried cricket burger for both him and the smaller fox. After paying for the food he took the bag and headed further into town to find Finnick's van.

* * *

Finnick was sitting in the back of his van reading through a paper he 'borrowed' from a news stand when a knocking sounded from the back doors. He grabbed his old back and through the door open. "Who's there?" He asked befor the door was open fully. His eyes quickly saw Nick standing there in his green shirt holding up a brown paper bag.

"I brought Charlies'" Nick said giving the bag a light shake.

The tan fox looked around briefly before stepping aside "Come on, let's talk inside. It's not safe out here any more." Nick stepped in closing the door behind him and sat across from the other passing over one of the burgers. Finnick looked him over as he took a bite of the burger, he wanted to know why he was here, why he was in the city, he even wanted to know how he was. While the two of them were both hustlers they had worked together for a few years now and had a close partnership, while neither of them really knew if they were friends or not they both knew that they could rely on the other. "I haven't gotten it yet." He opted for.

Nick looked up at him curiously before it clicked into his head, "Don't worry about it, I won't be needing it anymore. Besides, I still hate muzzles." He said between bites of his own burger.

"Is that why you came here?"

"Sorta." Nick replied, "Just needed to get away from the hang out, feel the sun, enjoy the city."

The smaller fox gave a huff followed by a chuckl, "Enjoy the city? You can't enjoy the city anymore. No-one can."

"Why what's going on?" Nick asked with expression and voice filled with worry.

With a heavy sigh Finnick thought how to start explain everything, "Ever since you and the bunny had your fight the city has been falling apart. There are fights all over the places, and savages popping up everywhere."

"Savages? They are still happening?" Nick asked concerned about the safety of his officer friend.

"Yeah, even faster than before that news speech, everyone has seen it now, it's all over the news still." He said tossing the paper he was reading earlier over to Nick for him to read the front page.

' _SAVAGE ATTACKS THROWING THE CITY INTO CHAOS_ ' the title read, and its article just what you would expect from such a title to be about. There was information about the fight just before the mammal went savage, witness quotes, and even a quote from Judy's speech just to emphasize their point.

"But there are rumors that some of the mammals that went savage are snapping out of it. Just like you did the other day." Finnick continued getting Nick's full attention again.

"Wait, but I didn't attack you did I?" Nick asked now feeling ashamed and concerned for what might have gone on in the time he can't remember.

Brown eyes watched the red fox while he took another bite before speaking, "You growled at me, but that was about it. Lucky for you." He smirked showing the other that everything between them was still okay.

"What else have you heard?"

"There are people saying that it's because prejudice and what not causing predators to go savage." The small fox said tossing his wrapper in the bin in the corner. After that the two of them sat silently for a bit as Nick finished his burger and threw the wrapper with the other.

Some time had past and not having anything further to talk about Nick took his leave with their conversation in mind and a warning from his friend to keep his head down until it blows over. And being one to know when to do so, Nick kept to the sides and back alleys and away from the watchful eyes of the city all the way out to the docs.

* * *

Early in the morning chief Bogo was briefing the officers and handing out case files. "The mayor has asked that I send a team tomorrow to the peace rally. There is obvious concern for a riot to take place and an even bigger concern for a savage outbreak." his voice was stern and absolute, without wavering or hesitation. "They will begin setting up first thing in the morning, so I'm giving the assignment now. Officers McHorn, Ramirez, Wolfred, Hopps. You'll be the team going tomorrow for the rally." He said giving the officers their files to look over the details themselves.

It went without saying that officers McHorn and Ramirez would partner up while Judy partnered up with officer Wolfred. Things worked better that way because Wolfred was one of the few officers that are nice to Judy, most the others just ignore her seeing as she is only a bunny. "Hopefully this doesn't go too bad hu?" the black timber wolf said as he went to his cubicle and his temporary partner to her own.

Judy sat in her chair looking over the details of the event, they would start setting up the speakers and electronics at seven, roadblocks would go up about seven as well to keep cars from trying to drive through the crowd, and the people rallying would be there before eight. Everything looked well planned out, they had chosen an open area with lots of space, there would be food and drinks for anyone who wanted to attend, there was even a news interview scheduled for Gazelle.

While everyone hoped that nothing bad happened at the rally they were all silently preparing themselves for the worst to come, as the 'just-in-case' thinking of the ZPD stuck with them. That was one of the things about being a police officer, you always had to prepare for the worst even if you were hoping for the best. That was one of the harder things for Judy, how could someone as optimistic as the small energetic bunny possibly try to prepare for the worst when she couldn't see the worst in things.

* * *

Back at the lab the scientist were finally making headway. While they have been busy with the new savages that have come in the last few days and they have been even busier with the amount of tests they were constantly running and preparing for with each new arrival and with each previous cases.

At the lab they have broken savages up into two different groups; the first group they had named 'outbreak' because it was never known why they went savage it was simply an outbreak of the occurrence, and so far the mammals in this group have began waking up within about one to two months of their outbreak with no memory of prior events.

The second group they had named 'aggravated', the mammals in this group are all more recent that most of the 'outbreak' group and were often reported by the ZPD to be found defending someone they were with or themselves, along with that by the time they had woken up from the tranq darts they were always back to their normal responsive state; albeit they were often still somewhat hostile and aggressive but after hearing from who they were found protecting they were pacified instantly.

While this information didn't help to find the cause of it or solve the problem it helped the facilities researches to understand the problem better, and with understanding comes progress; because in the field of science and discoveries unused information was still information. But they were still missing the important information, they honestly were beginning to doubt the usefulness of all these tests when none of the results were showing anything, however true to their scientific reasoning and motives all the researches and lab tech hard at work.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

Sorry again about this chapter being short and kinda off, I have been having writers block but I've been doing my best to push out the needed background stuff. It isn't too important but I think it adds needed or better details to the story. I think this is the last of these 'informational' chapters for a few updates, the next few will be mainly movie based chapters similar to the first one chapter (so they might be a little short).

Another chapter down! How did it do? Is it holding its expectations? Is it not detailed enough? Feel free to let me know your thoughts.

So it isn't ending these next couple of chapters but an end is coming into sight somewhat. I wanted to know what you guys thought about it having a sequel/side story after it is over because I don't think I much like the idea of just having it end. So what say you guys?

Oh and a bit of bad news. I have my finals this week so I need to take time to study and make sure my grades are all set so chapter 6 might be a few days late, as late as 5/2/16, but I wanted to be sure you guys knew that I am not giving up on this story. No, much like the evil sheep, I have plans for Zootopia, and I dearly hope you enjoy them. hahaha

That will be all for now, I'll be back next time!-


	6. City Gripped by Fear

**Chapter Notes:**

This chapter is the day of the Peace Rally.

Sorry again about the wait this time, I really needed time to focus on school. And it turns out I still have 2 finals this week so I might be a day or two late on the next update, but don't worry, it is underway already.

As promised, the next chapter!

* * *

 **City Gripped by Fear:**

"Alright quiet down." Chief Bogo's voice was firm and unmoving as he settled down the bullpen. "Those of you who are on watch for the peace rally we have received word that there is going to be a protest group at the event as well, and because of that we now have high concerns for a riot. Be alert and aware of your surroundings at all time. And watch, eachothers, back." He said pausing between each word with a voice very stirn, knowing the possible dangers. With that he dismissed them from the meeting and began giving out other assignments to the rest of the officers present.

Officers McHorn and Ramirez got in their squad car and headed out soon followed by Wolfred and Judy; who had to hop up just to get into the passenger's seat. She looked up face to face to see the handle of the glove box and groaned. "Want a booster seat?" Wolfred asked giving a light hearted chuckle at his current partner.

Judy huffed and crossed her arms as he started the engine getting herself another laugh from the wolf as he followed behind the other police vehicle. The drive was quiet, and incredibly tense. There was no awkwardness between the two officers, but Judy was just so caught up worrying about the day to come she didn't feel like talking much, which her partner quickly picked up on deciding it best to keep to himself. In about ten minutes they pulled up onto the street that was already being barricaded in, and parked their car on the street next to the other.

"Officers over here." A female voice called out as all four looked over seeing Gazelle directing a few others already. When the group had walked over to meet her she was talking to a camera crew going over a few details before the event began. "I'm sorry to have to keep you here all day, but when I heard about the protesters I got worried." She told them with a heavy heart.

"It's not a problem, the well being of _all_ mammals is the ZPD's number one priority." Wolfred said politely showing his support as he stepped up to the front of the group. "Just tell us where we need to be."

The horned mammal spent the next few minutes directing the group where they needed to be and telling them of any changes that have been made to the day's plan because of the protest. She let them all know that they were welcome to get food or drinks from the table set up at any time they walked before letting them go off their separate ways.

Just as she turned to walk away Judy stopped mid turn with thoughts running through her head. She quickly ran over to catch up with the rally organizer, "Mrs. Gazelle!" she called jumping beside her to get her attention.

The taller female looked down at the rabbit and knelt down on one knee to make the conversation easier for both of them, "Yes officer Hopps?" she said kindly in her gentle voice.

"I-I just wanted to apologize." Judy said casting her eyes down in shame.

This sudden statement confused the pop star, "What for?" she asked turning her head slightly.

"For what I said at the press conference." The grey bunny admitted twiddling her thumbs in front of her stomach. "It wasn't right of me to say something like that. I wanted to apologize for what I said, and for what I started." She admitted with a gesture at the gathering protesters chanting behind a barricade.

Gazelle understood what it was Judy was saying, she had felt like this whole prejudice problem was solely her fault, when in reality it was just the way the city was at times; afraid, rash, and hateful. "Judy, it's okay." She said putting a paw on the other's shoulder letting her know that she was being sincere.

"But-"

"You didn't cause any of this mess, mammals will always be afraid of other mammals, they always have been. But that's why we have rallies like this, so that we can remember that we are all the same. We all make mistakes, nobody's going to hold anything against you for it Judy." She said reassuringly to the young officer with a sad yet warm smile on her face.

"Thank you Gazelle." the small mammal smiled back, after that the both of them went to own ways. Judy to her assigned lookout and Gazelle to talk with some other setup members. While the talk had helped her to feel better and even to take away some of the guilt and shame that had been eating at her, she still felt partly responsible and vowed to make up for it in any way she could. And with that spark of determination she headed off to the center stage of the rally where some rally members were already getting together.

* * *

Everything was going fine at the rally, there were a few protesters shouting verbal threats and harassments, but with the ZPD's presence; especially officers McHorn and Ramirez, there was no big scruffle or actual fighting.

That was until Gazelle had stepped away to give her interview with the camera crew on the event, and at that point it seemed the protestors took action to cause problems. Younger protesters tagging and defacing the rally area with 'No Predators' signs while older protesters who thought they were civilized began picking shouting matches with rally goers and starting fights.

"You want equality?! Why do you want equality so you can attack other mammal?!" a pig shouted at lioness.

"We want equality so we can have equality!" she yelled back defending herself and all predators alike.

Judy being not to far away after confiscating a can of spray paint rushed over hearing the yelling start throwing the paint in the trash. "Wait! Stop!" she yelled getting in between the two.

The predator was there for peace, and saw Judy as her ally in this, but the prey was there for his own peace and saw Judy there as his enforcer. "Officer, arrest this _vicious pred_ before she goes savage and hurts someone!" he yelled pointing his attention to the feline while doing so.

"Sir plea-"

"The only ones hurting others are mammals like you!" the yellow furred feline shouted.

"With what?! My teeth and claws?!" the pig shouted back, "Look at you, you're practically a monster already!" he said gesturing to the other.

"Stop! Wait!" Judy yelled getting between them trying to hold them apart, but do to her small size she could only push at their legs and barely reach their midsections.

"And you're just a swine!" the lioness retorted back having nothing to do with him anymore turning away to show her equality sign to a different direction to avoid the protestor. Judy felt relieved as she felt the force against her left paw do with the lioness having only now to deal with the pig.

"Go back to the rain forest!" the angry protester yelled kicking dirt at the other mammal spraying the small officer between them with the dust.

The predator turned her head enough to respond over her shoulder, "I'm from the Savannah." She growled, "why don't you go back to the mud pits."

The pink mammal was put off by that comment twitching at the remark, "Why you _pussy_!*" He had had enough and charged past the bunny officer drawing his hooved fist back to strike the feline in the muzzle.

"NO! STOP!" Judy called trying to get up from the floor after being shoved down.

Out of the corner of her eye the lioness saw the angry animal charge her fist ready to strike.

 _danger._ A whisper sounded in her subconscious, a whisper so quiet it is more of a feeling than a sound, a whisper so tempting that by the time you turn around to find it it calls again from behind you. Her fight or flight instincts kicked in, and for her the fight instincts were stronger and more controlling than that of flight. As the pink fist closed in on her face her sanity slipped away, like water through her clawed fingers. She had only wanted peace and equality, but was only given violence and hate. She tried her best to resist the call of her feral instincts, but for how long could she resist. _danger._

Judy was nearly paralyzed, she was witnessing the turning of a citizen to a savage. She saw the fur bristle, the eyes shake in their sockets. Her ears picked up on the dangerous change in breathing, so low and slow that the predator could almost pass as not breathing. And the prey nature buried in Judy's mind was screaming out, for the prey instincts could feel the true predator looming close by.

The pig's arm had been caught in the air just before his paw made contact, he was furious to see the _pred_ holding onto his arm and tried pulling it back, only to find that it didn't move an inch. His eye caught sight of the face and muzzle of the one he sought to attack, and her eyes had caught his. They were flashing rapidly between anger, and then would dilate giving off a near murderous intent. Her muzzle tightened revealing sharp teeth as a dangerous snarl.

 _DANGER! RUN!_ The pig's instincts burned through him causing him to squeal in fear like his primitive ancestors. Miraculously he managed to free his paw and took off running out of sight on all fours.

The high pitched squeal snapped Judy out of her daze in time to see the pig running off. She was confused to see him on all fours before her eyes caught sight of the predator slowly hunching over to all fours. Her officer training kicked in stronger than her natural instincts and she jumped out in front of the yellow furred lioness. "Stop right now!" she yelled as she threw her arms out to block her path. Still flashing eyes locked in place with hers bewildering her, she could almost clearly see the predator fighting her instincts to give chase, until slowly little by little her eyes stayed their normal round form.

"What-what happened?" she asked the officer in front of her as she pushed herself back into a sitting position.

"You don't remember anything?" Judy asked confused yet still very relieved.

The predator put her paw to her temple area trying to sooth away a growing headache, "I remember that pig swinging at me and I tried to stop him." she said and tried connecting the dots as she looked around for the mentioned prey, "That pig! Did he punch me?!"

The officer was shocked to see her not being able to remember. "No,he uhh-you stopped him and he ran off." she said hoping the other would buy it, and thankfully she did. "But I need you to come with me for the report okay?" she asked, but before she could get a response her radio crackled to life.

"This is officer Mchorn, officer Ramirez has gone savage! Requesting backup immediately! A civilian is hurt!" the large officer's voice shouted through the speaker, "I repeat! This is officer Mchorn, officer Ramirez has gone savage! Requesting backup immediately! A civilian is hurt!"**

Without hesitation Judy rushed over to his location seeing officer Wolfred rushing in as well before Clawhauser's voice came through. "This is precinct one we are sending units your way!" nervousness was clear in his voice but the desperation was needed.

The sight Judy saw when she arrived was frightening to a mammal of her size, the crowd had dispersed and was running from the polar bear as he and the rhino circled on another. It was clear that the prey animal was ready to take on the predator, and vis versa. "Snap out of it Ramirez. You're not like this." the standing prey said waringly trying to put some sense into the polar bear. Because he did not want to fight his partner, his friend.

But all he got was growl through snarled fangs. _danger._ small waves of fear came over the officer as concern for his safety and the well being of his partner crossed his mind, ' _What if I don't stop him? What if he gets to the citizens?_ ' he shook the thought from his head.

 _danger_. The subtle whisper finally reached to him."No. I won't let that happen!" he shouted to himself as he charged his savage partner with his massive fist ready. The thing about instincts that hasn't been noticed yet by any of the mammals, is that large prey animals don't feel them the same way small prey mammals do. Instead they feel instincts closer to that of a predator, after all with a massive size and body built for fighting, why would they ever consider running away.

Ramirez rose on his hind paws causing Mchorn to stop as he saw his partner coming to his senses. But both Judy and Wolfred had read in their research on primitive animals, that polar bears fight standing. "Watch out!" they both yelled desperately trying to warn their fellow officer.

Out of his training at the academy and his own fighting experience the officer stepped enough to avoid the claws going to his face as the scraped against his metal chestplate, and out of reflex through his own right hook earning a solid hit to the muzzle of the predator.

Sirens were heard closing in by the group as the fallen predator as he got up and looked in the direction distracting him before the officer McHorn jumped behind him tackling him to the ground in a bear hug to hold him as the squad cars arriving busted through the roadblock signs quickly followed by a paramedic unit. As the large savage officer was held by his partner tightly on floor he trashed about violently trying to escape before three tranq darts embedded themselves through his thick fur. While the trashing continued it slowed and eased away until there was only a snoring heap of white fur.

"McHorn are you okay?" chief Bogo asked as he offered his paw to lift up his officer.

He saw the large scratches against his protective breastplate glad that they had hit metal than skin, "I'm fine. What about Ramirez?" his voice asked concerned for his partner.

While the cape buffalo hoped that what Dr. Shaw had told him and the mayor about the savages, he could only trust his officer would snap out of it soon. "He is a ZPD officer he will be fine." he said ignoring the question's main concern. "You three, head back to the office and fill out your report for this. We will take care of cleaning up here." he commanded the rest of the team that was sent that morning.

* * *

A sheep sat in her large chair watching the news report of the incident play out to all of Zootopia. On it showed the peace rally under severe protest with bits and clips from several shots showing that there could be no peace in the city, only fear. A wicked chuckle came out low as the video switched to a mosse being carried off by paramedics after being attack by the savage officer and then to the large rhino having to stand his ground against him.

"You said that was the last one?" she asked into her phone speaker returning her attention to the conversation she had called for.

"Yes. A-and the new batch won't be ready in time." he said brimming with fear for his wool at having to tell her the bad news.

"What do you mean" she asked with a voice so cold and deadly "That the batch won't be ready in time?"

"I-I-uh-well" he stuttered unable to get the words out properly, "Duke got caught, s-so he wasn't able to bring me the-the new flowers." he admitted hoping that it would point the blame and fury away from him.

' _That's right, Judy arrested him last week._ ' she thought grimly seeing as her favorite officer was getting in the way of her plans ignorantly. "Fine. When will they be ready?"

"I-it might take a while to get more flowers, m-maybe two weeks." he said as he trembled despite being miles away from the other mammal.

"No!" She snapped before taking a deep calming breath. "You did a good job today so I will be lenient with you. You will have one week. One!" she yelled before hanging up roughly once more.

While it infuriated her that her plans are being delayed yet again, this last darting had gone far better than planned, now that an officer went savage no predator could be trusted so she was in a wickedly good mood. She turned her attention back to the news report to hear the end of Gazelle's speech. "Sorry Gazelle, but the Zootopia you love is gone. It's _my_ Zootopia now." she said as a deep seeded evil laugh crawled out as she threw her head back.

* * *

Judy was sitting at her cubicle finally typing in the full report for Mr. Otterton. She had just finished typing up her report of the what had happened at the peace rally. It had taken her an hour to include everything from the taggings she stopped to the argument between the pig and the lioness and then what had happened between the two large officers. She was being detailed as she was having doubts about her being there, she was buying as much time as she could before having to decide what she wanted to do, then a knock sounded against her rear wall.

"Chief Bogo?" she said as she turned to face the large mammal who had knocked. Her eyes flowing with the same sadness carried in her voice, but her heart carried it even more so.

"The new mayor would like to see you." he responded with a gesture, his muzzle carried an expression somewhere between neutral and sad but was laced with a small sad smile.

"Why?" she asked curiously as she got began sitting upright in her chair. Her ears were laid back in sadness and her eyes not as bright as normal.

"It would seem you have arrived." he said with the same expression as before as he lead them to his police cruiser. When they were walking out of the front entrance the large mammal visibly lowered his head giving a sad sigh as he kept walking.

As Judy walked past the front desk her sad purple eyes saw a depressed Clawhauser packing away his things into a box and the widened. "Clawhauser what happened?" she asked worried about what was going on.

The feline looked at his fellow officer with a sad and low face to match his uncharacteristic sad voice. "They feel that a predator, such as myself, shouldn't be the first face you see when you walk into the ZPD." He said sadly blinking back tears as his eyes began watering again for the third time that hour. "They are moving me to records, its downstairs. Next to the boiler." He said defeatedly as he went back to putting away his belongings.

Judy watched the broken cheetah for a moment, slowly breaking herself, no matter what others would tell her they couldn't convince her that this isn't her doing. And little by little, piece by piece, her go-getter resolve broke away. "Hopps." the chief's voice called out to her. She turned back away following after him into his squad car, once again having to hop to get into the large vehicle. The ride to City Hall was short, only a few minutes, but for both mammals it felt like hours. And those hours were deafeningly quiet for both pairs of ears. Not a whisper was spoken, but not an emotion was unexpressed.

When the two arrived they were told by the receptionist that they could go right up because the mayor was expecting them. And after a short elevator ride they had gotten to the top floor and were now standing just outside the dark wooden doors. With a firm knocking the larger mammal announced their arrival. "Mayor Bellwether, I've brought her." He said as he opened the door allowing Judy to step in first before closing the door after himself.

"Judy! Chief Bogo! It's great to see you guys again." She yipped happily seeing the chief of precinct one and her favorite officer. "How are you guys doing?" she asked looking between the both of them not getting any answer beside downcast eyes.

"Why don't you tell her about what you wanted to show her?" the horned mammal spoke up trying to change the subject.

The she perked up at remembering the reason behind the visit she had called for. "Oh that's right!" she said as Judy got into the seat across from her and chief Bogo in the one beside the desk."Well what do you think?" she asked as she held up a poster.

The poster was a ZPD poster covered in different shades of blue and had the logo and motto in gold. But most importantly the focal point was of Judy herself. She was standing tall and proud in her uniform on the day she was assigned to precinct one, smiling bright and with vibrant eyes glowing with the same brightness. "I-I'm sorry, I don't understand." she said missing that vibrant attitude.

"Well Judy, Zootopia is ninety percent prey. And right now they are all just really scared. You're a hero to them and they trust you; that's why we want you to be the new face of the ZPD." She told the bunny excitedly as she gave her the flyer to look at closer. As Judy looked at the flyer the mayor studied her with army green eyes.

Judy's long grey ears were laid flat on her back, ' _I'm no hero, I'm just a dumb bunny._ ' She thought to herself as her dull eyes looked over the paper in her hands. "I am not a hero, I came here to make the world a better place." She said as she looked back to the mayor eyes dull in sadness and guilt, "But I-I think I broke it." She finally admitted out loud to herself rather than the other two.

'I was so hard on her, everyone was.' Chief Bogo thought to himself as he remembered regretfully all the times he had stomped all over Judy's dreams. He felt he was the one to push her into risking her life, that pushed her so far she had become the face of this prejudice movement. If it really was her that broke the world, it was him that had first broken her. "The world has always been a broken place." He spoke to her with honesty, that's why he too became an officer nearly two decades ago. "That's why we need good officers, officers like you." He said still filled with sincerity as he tried to show her what he thought without having to say it.

Judy took his words in and thought about how he had doubted her, how he had been so demanding as to nearly fire her; twice. But then she thought about how right he was, ' _It's not about how badly you want something, it's about what you are capable of._ ' His words that day replayed in her head blocking out the honesty he was telling her now. "With all due respect sir, an officer should serve, protect, and help the city." She said now fully sure of her next decision which had caught both her chief and mayor by surprise as she unclipped her badge from her breast

"Not tear it apart" With a final sad breath she put the badge that was once hers down on the table "I don't deserve this." she said sliding off the chair and walked away towards the door.

"Hopps!"

"Judy!"Both the large and small prey left sitting spoke up out of surprise "You worked so hard to get here. This is what you always wanted. This is your dream." the mayor said as her voice raised with each statement, because being an officer was always Judy's dream, but this. _This_ was Bellwether's dream, this is what she always wanted. "You can't quit." she said with a voice more calm than before.

"Thank you, for the opportunity." a quivering voice whispered through the room just before the large door clicked shut.

' _You dumb bunny._ ' the mayor hissed internally as she stared at the badge left on her desk. ' _This is not how things were supposed to go!_ ' she thought angrily fighting hard to keep a harsh scowl and growl suppressed with the chief there with her.

* * *

As Judy walked from the subway stop to her apartment her ears lay sadly against her back and her paws drag slightly as she stepped. When a gunshot sound startled her slightly out of her depression and into a small panic, but she quickly looked to see a red van with a silver driver door pull into an alleyway. After seeing what it was Judy went back to her sad slow walk before only getting a few steps and realizing that she had seen that van before, she had seen Nick riding in that van. She quickly ran up to up the the vehicle parked further into the alley with its engine just being shut off, she tried peering into the driver's seat from the window but because her height she wasn't able to.

"Nick are you in there?" she called out in a voice filled with hope and desperation while knocking against the door. "Nick please, I-I wanted to say I'm sorry." She said quieter having not thought this through.

Inside the van Finnick was standing on the passenger seat going through the glove box when he heard someone calling from outside ' _Hows she know Nick?_ ' he thought confused at unfamiliar voice, but then it clicked to him that it was the same voice of the cop that hustled him into helping her last week, the same one that gave every predator a bad name, he thought angrily. "Watch you want, _fuz_?" He said with a slight simmer in his voice while going back to looking through the glove box.

"I wanted to talk to Nick. I need to apologize." she confessed to Finnick feeling from the silence that he had froze upon hearing it, "and...I'm not a policer officer anymore. I just quit today." she admitted to him sadly hanging her head and twiddling her thumbs.

Finnick gave a sigh, while he had his reputation for being tough and unwavering he still felt bad for the rabbit. He and closed up the glove box not finding what he was looking for and stepped across the seats to reach the door before pushing it open. "Look bunny, Nick ain't here." He said to her while looking down to her.

Judy looked at him closely trying to see if he was lying, only to find that he was telling the truth. "Do-do you know where he is?" she asked now wanting to find him herself if she had to.

Finnick thought about his answer carefully debating on whether or not to tell her before choosing not to. "I don't keep tabs on him." He said, he lied. Both him and Nick usually had pretty good tabs on the other, at the very least they knew were in the city they would be for the most part.

The former police officer looked the fox over trying to pick up any form of lie or give away, only to find none. After all unlike Nick Finnick was older and had been a fox his whole life having no problems with being so. "Can you at least give him a message for me?" she asked, "please?" she begged causing his features to soften.

The fox looked her over, he looked over her sadly fallen ears, her timid and broken posture, and into her deep amethyst orbs. And once again he gave into the empathy gnawing at him, with an exhaled breath and a slight nod of his muzzle he agreed.

How do you tell someone that you're sorry for breaking their trust, that you are sorry for hurting them, for making them look like a monster? How do you tell them if you could take back what you said you would do it? How do you make their pain go away when you are the cause of it?

"Ca-can you tell him I am sorry, for everything?" she finally decided, she finally decided her last words to the friend she had hurt. She didn't know what to tell him, there was so many things she wanted to say, but no words to say them with. After picking her attention back up from the floor she saw him give another nod, even saw that he looked sad for her. "Thank you." She said through a seeming void of tone, but filled with hurt.

Finnick watched her turning to leave, he had never seen anyone that sad before, and that emotion filled him. "Chow." He said with reflected pain as he closed the door softly as he went back inside.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

" _pussy_ "* okay so I am really sorry if anyone took this phrase offensively, but I didn't mean it as a put down to people or as a coward. It was meant as a put down to felines, the same other fic writers have used the term in Zootopia.

"...Ramirez has gone savage!..."** so in the movie it showed a polar bear in a red jogger suit that had gone savage, but I thought that it would make the whole thing a little better if it was an officer instead, kinda showing that 'no predator is safe' type of thing.

Oh and I know a lot of people have been dying to see a prey animal go 'savage' and I know this isn't what was expected or hoped for, but I was having a hard time deciding on how to go about that. So I decided to go with the whole idea of what "Instincts" is, which is well just survival nature in my eyes.

Okay so that's another chapter, so what did you guys think of the chapter? It was a little longer than the rest of them I think but I couldn't find a good stopping point, and besides I think it covered a decent amount of story and detail. Plus I feel like I owed you all a good chapter after having waited so long. Alright let me know what you thought, and I'll see you in the next chapter!-

Oh and so there wasn't to much response when I had asked about there being a sequel for when this ends, but now I figured there are new readers who are catching up with the story, so what do you all think of a sequel story to Instincts? let me know.


	7. The End

**Chapter Notes:**

Okay so first let me say this isn't the end of the fic, no there are still several chapters. That is just the title of this chapter. We are picking up after Judy leaves from meeting Finnick, enjoy!-

* * *

 **The end:**

Judy stepped onto her welcome mat as she opened the door feeling the crunch of the cement that dusted over it from her first day, yet another reminder of Nick, and another reminder of how she failed to be a police officer. She unlocked and opened the door to once again to see the empty dark room, she honestly did love it the first night there. She loved the change from her house in Bunny Borrow, she loved the independence that can with it, but now it wasn't independence that the room reminded her of, it was loneliness. No longer having the will or the reason to stand she flopped down onto her bed sobbing into her pillow.

"HEY CUT THAT CRYING OUT RABBIT!"

"TOLD YOU IT MIGHT BE WORSE!" the other brother also shouted at her.

With that she began to feel even worse than she did before, but now she made sure to wallow in her depression silently so she wouldn't be a bother to anyone anymore. And in her small lonely room cried silently her small lonely figure.

* * *

Purple eyes slowly opened to find the late morning sun poking through her window spilling into the room, the fur on her cheeks was clumped together after her sleeping all night on the wet pillow, the only comfort she had found in her sleep to grab onto. The empty rabbit sat up in bed with her legs hanging off the side for a few minutes when she decided to grab her shower basket that had her soups and a loofah, and change of clothes before heading to the showers down the hall.

As she stood there finding comfort in the hot spray as it washed her dried tears off her cheeks she began thinking what it was she was going to do now after giving up on her dreams.

* * *

Nick was enjoying another morning out on his folding chair listening to music. For the past few days he had been mowing over what Finnick had told him; the news reporting on savage attacks still continuing and about the rumor of why it was happening. But predators have always been discriminated against, nothing has changed with that. However in that time of a few days his worry for Judy had grown with the thought that because she was an officer, she would be on the lines of the savage outbreaks. But now after everything that was going on with the city, with his 'problem'. Now he was a danger to her and anyone else, and while he didn't like getting close to Finnick at this point, he thought the company would help keep him sane.

Speaking of the other fox, it wouldn't hurt to pay him another visit, and with that thought in mind he mossied himself down to his friends regular hang out spot. About thirty minutes later he turned the corner to find the vehicle he was looking for hearing shuffling coming from inside as he stepped in closer. "Where the hell is it?!" he heard the muffled yell through the back of the van causing him to chuckle.

He stepped up to the back door giving two light knocks only to hear more grumbling and rustling. Nick gave two more harder knocks, "Are you in there slugger?" he called out to let the other know he wasn't someone looking for trouble, at the call he hear the shuffling stop and shortly after the door opened up.

Finnick didn't bother waiting for the red fox to say anything, once he opened the door he stepped back inside letting Nick close the door behind him as he began to look in boxes already been gone through. The taller fox looked around curiously at the mess that was the van, while Finnick was never exactly _organized_ , he wasn't a messy guy either. Clothes scattered about the space, thrash spilled from the tipped over trash can, different papers all over the dashboard. "What happened here?" he asked as he pushed some clothes off one spot and onto another.

"Lookin for my music player." He grumped as he checked through the pockets of another pair of shorts before throwing it into a pile and moving onto the next. "Where the hell is it?!" he barked as he kicked the pile over

Nick gave a small huff at the older fox's frustration, "I borrowed it the other day." He admitted plainly with a smirk on his face as he pulled out the mentioned music player showing it in his paw to the other.

Finnick stopped rifling through things and turned around with a deadpan face to the other, which turned into an angry glare seeing the mentioned item waving in the air. "Damn it Nick!" he yelled as he stomped over and snatched it out of Nick's paw.

"Hey I even charged it for you." He smirked as he leaned back in his seat.

"How-you know what, I don't care." Finnick began but then stopped mid sentence

Nick gave a chuckle at the stopped comment, "so what's been up with you bud?" the younger fox asked seeing it cause the older fox to stiffen ' _uh-oh, what'd you do this time?_ ' he thought seeing the others reaction.

It never slipped Finnick's mind that the rabbit had come looking for him, and he never forgot her request, however for the rest of the day he had debated on whether or not he would actually tell Nick. And it looks like it was time to decide. "Someone stopped by looking for you." He admitted as he turned around to face the other

As a hustler, that statement worried Nick. The only people take came looking for him were trouble, and if they came to Finnick looking that meant really trouble. "who came looking?" he asked concern not going unnoticed.

"Your cop friend." He said neutrally.

" _cop friend?_ " he questioned out loud to himself more that the other before it clicked, "Judy? Judy came here?" he asked the smaller fox for clarification getting a nod back. ' _she's looking for me?_ ' the red fox thought to himself. "when was she here? What did she want?" voice now clearing showing interest.

Finnick's brown eyes looked over Nick's expression trying to read him, only to find that he couldn't tell what Nick was thinking. With a pause he began, "She came by yesterday afternoon looking for you saying she was sorry for everything." He said remembering the sad eye of the bunny. "Hey where you going?" he asked seeing Nick get up headed for the door.

"I'm going to go find her." He said as he hopped out of the back rushing off quickly. "Thanks Bud, I owe you." He called over his shoulder without closing the door behind him.

* * *

Nick was walking around the streets looking for any sign of Judy, his red tail waving behind him as he spread across the sidewalk hoping to see the familiar meter maid car anywhere. He had looked through the blocks around the ice cream shop where they first met, and around any of the nearby street parking areas. But so far, the fox was having no luck in finding the bunny. Even if he did find her, what would he say, what would he do? He wasn't entirely sure, actually he wasn't sure at all, but he knew that he had to say something to make things right.

However now that he wasn't walking through back alleys and away from prying eyes, he felt them all over the city. True to Finnick's previous warnings, he felt the city as a whole hating him and scrutinizing him just for being there, and to make it worse the city he loved didn't seem like that same city anymore. While walking around he noticed that nearly everyone he saw belongs to the prey family, while it's true there is only one predator for every ten prey animals in the city, during Nick's morning so far he had only seen a handful of predators around; and the strange thing was that they were the ones going about their day afraid of others, and afraid of themselves.

As the red fox searched the streets he got for more rude comments and gestures than he normally received in entire days, but what got to him most was not the comments about him being a fox, but the comments about him being a ' _vicious_ ' predator. He had never attacked anyone before in his life, and even going as far as running instead of using self defense when muggers at the docs had tried roughing him up; he simply didn't believe in violence, he wasn't raised that way and he would never be that way.

* * *

A grey paw tapped the button of the silver bell on the counter causing it to give out its two distinct dings. Purple eyes looked around the counter trying to find a way of knowing how long the sign had been left up, and trying to look into the open door behind it. 'Ring bell for assistance' the triangular paper sign read sitting next to the mentioned bell on the ledge of the counter. *ding...ding* it sounded again for the fifth time by the rabbit.

"I hear you, I hear you." an elderly voice called from the room as small footsteps were heard coming closer. The owner of the apartment complex stepped out through the doorway taking her seat at the computer and removing the sign. "Yes?" she questioned impatiently to Judy.

Judy gave a sigh after having waited for several minutes too long for any rabbit, "I'm here to turn in my keys." she said placing them on the counter for the armadillo.

The older mammal took the keys and looked at the tag on the key set and entering the room number into the computer system. "Judy Hopps?" she asked looking over at the other seeing a nod in return. "Your month's rental isn't up for another two weeks. There are no refunds for half months." she said seemingly irritated.

"I-I know. I just wanted to turn them in. I don't think this was for me." she said about the city more so than the apartment complex she was in.

"Was it the antelope brothers again? I told them to cut out their racket, you're the third tenant to leave 304 early after they moved in. I'm going to-" she was cut off as her voice began raising being irritated at losing her tenants.

The slightly taller prey mammal spoke up to stop the other from getting to far into the wrong idea. "No, it-it wasn't them." she stuttered being partily confused at the sudden quick complaint of the owner. "It's because...family reasons." she lied, "I have to go back home for some things."

The armadillo lowered her glasses to look at her over the frame for a moment. "That's a shame. You were such a great police officer, telling preds what's what." she said as she turned back to her computer typing some things in before pulling a file out from the cabinet next to her. "I just need you to fill out these forms first." she said as she slid and a few papers and a pen to the rabbit.

Judy couldn't help but be hurt by those words; " _police officer telling preds what's what_ " that was the reason why she was leaving, because that wasn't what a police officer should be. Deed down Judy knew that nearly all the animals in Zootopia looked at her like a hero in all the wrong ways. But she signed the papers without saying anything else; her name, room number, and all the other basic information. And after she was done she pushed the papers back. "Is that everything?" she asked now upset again by the comment.

"Yep, I'll get it but into the system but you're free to go." she said without saying goodbye as she took the papers into the other room. Judy waited a minute before finally realizing that she wasn't coming back out of the room.

She grabbed all her things that she had brought from home and had gotten over her short stay. And with all her things in her paws she headed off to the train station, headed for out of city, headed to Bunny Borrow. As she walked to the train station with her bags in paw; all two bags with all of her belongings, she began to notice the lack of a certain animal family present in the city, she noticed the lack of any and all predators. But further more, it seemed that the city had noticed her.

As she walked through the public's eye she felt all the prey family animals looking onto her with cheer and joy, not knowing it was the last time they would see her. Many thanked her for protecting the city and keeping them all safe, many wanted pictures, but all of them wanted her to " _put preds in their place_ "

After a few blocks of this Judy couldn't stand it anymore and instead of walking out in the open and opted to walk in the shadowy alleys and back behind the buildings as she traveled to the train station. It took longer this was because she had to go around the large buildings and here was no clear direction she could tell like if she was walking in the main streets, so everyone now and then she would have to go back into the public area to orientate herself heading back to the station.

* * *

As Nick searched through the downtown area of Zootopia near precinct one where he was sure he would find Judy he was looking out to his sides hoping he didn't miss her on the opposite side of the street as he walked his own side, but that proved to be a mistake when he bumped straight into another animal knocking them both over.

"Hey watch where you're walking, _dump pred_!" shouted the female koala as she gathered her things into her purse.

Nick got up offering a paw out to her to help her up, "I-I'm sorry I was looking for someone." He said irritatedly.

The smaller mammal slapped his paw away and got up herself. "Like I trust you, _fox_. You were just trying to snatch my purse!" she yelled angrily as she held her purse close to her. "I should report you to the police!" she sneered at the red furred mammal.

"Hey hey hey." A third voice called out as the figure stepped in between the two of them with his back turned to Nick, but he could tell from the blue uniform that he was a police officer.

' _wait a police officer! He might know where Judy is!_ ' Nick thought quickly as the idea and hope popped into his head.

"I'm officer Wolfred. What seems to be the problem here ma'am?" he asked politely looking over his shoulder at the fox behind him thinking it best if he separated the two of them but surprised to see the fox hadn't made a run for it. ' _I've seen him somewhere before._ ' He thought as he turned his attention back to the small marsupial.

With an angry hand gesture she pointed to Nick, "That _fox_ tried to steal my purse!"

At that hate filled lie Nick spoke up. "Hey I said I was sorry for bumping into you. And I wasn't trying to steal anything." He said trying to clarify to the other two mammals as he poked his head around the side of the dark grey wolf in front of him.

"Alright ma'am you can go I'll take care of things here." He said turning his attention from the fox back to the koala. "Unless you want to go down to the station and file your statement?"

With an angry huff the female stormed off. " _Dumb preds_." Her mudder not going unheard by both predators causing both of them to sigh in irritation.

"I didn't try to steal from her." Nick said still trying to keep his namesake as he stepped back giving the wolf some space as he turned around to face the fox. That's when Nick froze at the sight of his face, at the sight of the muzzle covering the wolf's snout. Nick looked on both confused and shocked at the sight of the black metal on the officer stammering, "W-what? Why-why are you wearing a muzzle?" fear slightly hinted in his voice as he began to grow nervous.

Wolfred's posture slumped over to match his mood. He hated having to wear this muzzle, but it's what the city sees fit. "Predator family officers have to wear muzzles while on patrols in the city." He said sadly, "it-it's a safety precaution, if we can't keep the city safe how can we call ourselves officers." He spoke, repeating the message that was told to them that morning.

* * *

"Alright you all have your assignments, but before you leave, the mayor has come by to say a few things." He said as the door opened revealing mayor Bellwether followed by a ram officer carrying several boxes. Murmurs filled the room as she took the podium at the front of the room. "Quiet down!" the chief commanded, "mayor Bellwether?" he said taking a spot next to her to stand.

"Thank you chief Bogo." She said with a smile before turning to the room. "Sense the public announcement of the savage outbreaks many mammals have expressed their concerns and worries about the rest of the predator family mammals in the city and their concerns and worries have only been growing since then." She stated the obvious fact that everyone in the room knew.

They all knew the dangers, in fact they all worried about the dangers even more so because all the officers knew it was their job to prevent and stop danger, not become it. But the thing is; most of all Zootopia officers were predator family mammals. When it came down to physical ability more often than not prey family mammals just couldn't keep up with the most of the predators in order to pass the academy. Whether it was a lack of strength or stamina that limited them or even coming down to the fact that during drills and practices many prey mammals couldn't stand under the pressure of the fake life or death simulations they had to go through, and because of that officials were hesitant to hope they would protect the city. On the other hand as officials saw predators pushing through physical challenges and drills without hesitation the choice was obvious on what recruiters would make strong officers.

"And with the savage incident yesterday involving the polar bear-" she began but was interrupted

"His name is Ramirez. Officer Ramirez." Mchorn spoke up from the back of the room at the mention of his partner.

The sheep gave a huff at the statement, "Yes, well. He's a savage now." She said coldly not caring about the backstory of the latest savage, only that it caused the panic she had hopped for. "And because he was a police officer now the city is deeply concerned about public safety with predator family officers."

Bogo looked on carefully listening intently, while him and the mayor talked about what they would do after Judy resigned they hadn't gotten any form of feedback from the city as a whole. While it was understood that it caused a lot of panic and fear it would take days before any final decision should have been made. And even then he would have been told in advance what the decision was, or even that a decision had been made.

"And do to concerns it was decided that the best way to keep the public safe is to have all predatory officers wear muzzles." She explained as she pulled out a black muzzle from the box to show them.

"What?!" "You can't do that!" "We have rights too!" many protested were shouted and yelled from the offended officers, but even so everyone in the room was shocked at the announcement.

"Quiet! Quiet down!" chief Bogo yelled trying to get control of the room, however he failed to speak above the shouts and anger in the room.

As shouts and insults were yelled in defense the mayor listened to the chief hoping that he could settle his officers, but failing to do so quickly. "ENOUGH!" she commanded silencing the room in seconds as she snarled at everyone in the room staring daggers at anyone looking to challenge her.

 _fear._ The spark jumped through most of the trained officers in the room without them even realizing it. Even the chief himself was caught off guard by her sudden and uncharacteristic show of authority and power. He thought suspiciously of her announcement and her as a mayor as he saw the ram officer cowering next to her as if knowing what her raith feels like.

"Now as I was saying-" her cold and uncaring voice once again cut off

"Hold it right there." Chief Bogo now spoke against the small sheep earning a glare from her, causing him to glare even more firm in response. "Why was I not informed of this _decision_ before hand?" he asked his voice threatening as he began using his years of police experience to think of all the possibilities that may be the real current situation. "I am the chief of precinct one. The head district of Zootopia city. No decisions go past me." He said each work becoming more threatening as he made his stand, each statement more firm and final.

But yet, the mayor didn't lower her gaze one bit, and her sharp army green eyes didn't waver. In fact, she enjoyed loved the challenge of authority, she enjoyed a good grudge match, and she glared daggers at him for it. "Well ' _chief Bogo of precinct one_ '" she said mocking his title, his name, and his image as a whole. "It seems that you aren't as concerned for the public as I thought you were." She said tryingly, testing his reaction. While the comment didn't phase the large buffalo it once again set off the rest of the officers into their own concerns and worries.

However a lone voice called out, "Fine." It said gruffly earning the attention of nearby mammals quieting them and putting their eyes on the speaker causing a hush to fall over the room. The chief looked on curiously at Wolfred, the other officers looked on confused and shocked, and the mayor looked on with triumph. The canine pushed in his chair and stepped up to the podium in front of the sheep. "If it's a public concern I'll do it." He said with low shoulders and a sad tone in his voice.

An unnoticed glint sparked through the mayor's eye as she looked on innocently, but thinking corrupt as her plan began turning in motion once again. She slid the metal over his muzzle and pulled the black leather straps behind his head securing the device in place. After she let go he stood up straight again and fixed the fur bent wrong under the restraints and gave a sad sigh at the feeling of the cold hard metal pressed up against the area around his muzzle as he turned back to take his seat in the middle of the room.

As stepped across the floor on his padded feet as well as the wolf returned to his seat all eyes followed him and then glanced around the room before one by one all the predators got in line to let the mayor outfit them each with their own muzzle. "Thank you, officers, for your corporation. And I promise that as the mayor of Zootopia, I will make sure that everything will be taken care of." She said with a grand innocent voice cheery and upbeat as she always did giving her public speeches sure to win over any crowd. Then after a few more words she left with the ram that came with her, leaving the chief to talk with his officers about this ' _public decision_ '.

* * *

"Look I'm not going to arrest you or anything, I believe you." Wolfred said to the red fox earning a look of gratitude, "You might want to keep to yourself for a while, at least until this all blow over. Just try to stay out of trouble for a while." He warned through the muzzle as he began turning around to leave.

Without thinking Nick had reached out grabbing his paw to turn the officer around, "Wait I need your help with something." He said letting go of the other's paw putting his hands in front of himself. "I'm looking for Judy Hopps. The new rabbit officer." Nick said ashamed to be asking an officer for help let alone to find his friend.

"Judy, why?-" the taller predator thought with realization. "Wait a minute, you're the fox she was with at the press conference." He said loudly, his excitement scaring Nick into worrying about what was to come. "She has been in rough shape since that day, I didn't really know her before then but I know she isn't herself now." He explained.

"What do you mean?"

"She's blaming herself for everything going on. The hate crimes, the fighting, and you." The last statement he said after a pause which also shocked Nick. "she hasn't stopped feeling bad about what she said since you left, and she's been working harder than anyone trying to stop the savage outbreaks."

Now it was Nick's turn to feel in the wrong, he never would have thought that him walking out on her that day would make her feel so terrible about herself. ' _some partner I am._ ' He thought solemnly. "Do you know where she is? I need to make things right with her." He told the officer showing that he was serious.

Wolfred looked on curiously at the fox who he too thought was angry at Judy, but as it turns out he was hurting just as much as she was about their fight. "No, she didn't show up today. I don't know where she might be."

Nick was at a loss, even if he didn't know Judy that well even he could tell it wasn't like her to not show up for work. "Do you know where she lives?" he asked hopeful that the officer could tell him that much at least.

* * *

Judy had finally made it to the train station and was waiting in line to buy her ticket out of the city, and to her surprise she saw a lot of predators waiting in line as well; all of them a mix between sad, angry, or afraid.

"Dad why do I have to go stay with grandma and grandpa?" she overheard a young wolf cub ask her dad holding her paw.

His sad exhale didn't go unheard, and the emotion didn't go missed. "Because sweety, there are things happening in the city and I want you to be safe with grandma and grandpa."

"But what kind of things are happening?" she asked innocently.

"It's big animal things, just let daddy take care of them okay? Besides grandpa and grandma have missed you." He said with a smile to his daughter, one she thought was happy, but one that anyone else could tell was sad and pained.

After seeing that pained smile Judy looked away and did her best to tune out any more conversations around them, because she had noticed that many of them were all the same; innocent and gentle predators running from the city they loved, because now the city didn't love them.

"Next." An irritated voice called from the terminal snapping the rabbit out of her slum.

She stepped up to the booth meant for mammals her size. "one ticket to Bunny Burrow please." She said still partially in her slum. Not needing any real thought or focus she paid her fee and collected her ticket before heading to her train that was getting ready to pull out of the station in a few minutes.

* * *

Nick stood at the front desk of a cheap apartment complex waiting impatiently for the attendant to return to the desk.*ding ding ding* he rang the bell again as he tapped his padded foot against the floor. Thankfully after having waited long enough Nick heard movement coming from the closed door just before it opened.

"How can I help you?" the old armadillo asked as she took her seat at the desk looking over the mammal in front of her distastefully.

"yeah I'm looking for Judy Hopps." He said picking up on her unpleasant vibe. "I was told I could find her here."

"Sorry I can't help you, _pred_." she spoke as she crossed her arms in front of her. "Besides, she left this morning."

' _Great she's one of those types_ ' Nick thought to himself angrily, "Wait? Left? What do you mean she left?" he asked confused.

The elderly mammal rolled her eyes at what she thought was a dumb question from a dumb mammal, "She left. That's what I mean. She was here, but she isn't now. She checked out this morning."

As the red fox heard what she had to say gears started turning in his head. The reason why she was looking for him the other day, the reason why she wanted to apologize, the reason why she wasn't at work. "She-she's gone…?" he whispered to himself finally realizing it was too late to catch her.

As Nick headed back to his hideout by the docs he was deep in thought about having missed his chance to apologize to Judy for acting out the way he did when he knew she didn't mean the things she said about predators. And most importantly it was his fault for frightening her into going for her fox spray, he had practically threatened her life not even a day after being chased down by a savage animal. This time he had gone to far to prove his point, and this time he couldn't take make up for it.

Sure he had thought about finding out where she lived and sending a letter, he even debated as far as going himself to apologize face to face. But yet that idea seemed to much to him, how would she take getting a letter his letter in the mail, or to seeing him at her door; some things had to have a limit, and he thought this was it. Maybe some day soon he would get the chance to apologize and make amends for not being loyal, but that day wasn't today.

As he approached the outskirts of town just before crossing over the bridge connecting the two lands he saw a train zooming down down the tunnel heading out of the city; with one small lonely figure sitting in the back, but he didn't recognize it, he didn't recognize her.

* * *

Judy boarded the train and rather than getting into the top seating like she did when she had come to the city, she went straight for the back wanting just one last look at the city she once loved. The train began to move screeching along as it started and the lone rabbit put in her head phones listening to yet another sad playlist of songs she had come to know in the past few days. Her mind was occupied with the thought of many things; what her parents would say, how she hurt all the predators, how she frightened all the prey, and how she tore apart Zootopia. But most of all she thought about how she had let everyone down; the mayor, the chief, all of Zootopia, herself, but most of all Nick.

He had began to help her, to open up for her, to trust her, but then she broke that trust and closed him off from her. Her words had been unfair, and cruel to all predators, even if they were true she shouldn't have announced them to everyone. But then to have said that in front of Nick, who not a day earlier had told her his past of being attacked by the people he thought were his friends, was unforgivable. And in all honest she truly believed that her words hurt him more that their words did long ago.

As the train made the final turn on the tracks it headed down the tunnel leaving the city she took one last fleeting glance at the city she thought she would love forever, and as she did she saw a distant outline of a fox. ' _I wonder if I ruined his life too?_ ' she thought to herself as the figure faded into the distance with the rest of Zootopia.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

Alright, another long chapter, and only more to come, I kinda liked this one too actually. Okay so I was trying out a bit of a different writing style this chapter with parallels, what do you guys think, was it good or bad? Now granted I think if this works, I could only make it work with certain points where both characters are going through something. But let me know how it was, oh and how the actually story part of the chapter was.

Until next time!-


	8. The Saddest Bun

**Chapter Notes:**

Okay so this is going to be about the time that passed between the 'break-up' and the apology. Now when I first started this i had planned on a week just because well I don't know, I just like that time line. But since then there was the 6 months theory and recently it was clarified that it is 3 months only/ And I thought that having to go over months of time would be really un-detailed and what not so I going to stick with 1 week.

* * *

 **The Saddest Bun:**

*diiiiing dooooong* the doorbell to the Hopps family house. "I wonder who that could be?" both Bonnie and Stu questioned from the living room as the enjoyed a midday peace after lunch had been cleaned up and the kids were all out playing in the farms or upstairs.

"Maybe it's the mailman? I was expecting a letter from my sister." Stu said as he got up and headed to the door.

"Its Sunday dear." Bonnie said blankly clearing that up for her husband as she followed suit. "Well, who is it?" she asked seeing him looking through the peephole in the door.

"It's, Judy? Did she say she was coming home?" he asked.

"Just open the door Stu." She said as she nudged him aside and opened the door herself. "Judy, Sweety why didn't you say you were coming home for a visit? We would have told the whole burrows about it." She said as she spread her arms wide open wrapping them around her daughter. But then she felt her shoulders shudder slightly and began to hear a faint sobbing coming from the bunny in her arms feeling two paws clutched onto her shirt. "Judy dear what's wrong? What happened?" she asked concerned as she looked over her daughter seeing nothing wrong. "Come on sweetie let's go inside. Stu get her bags." She said as she guided them to the living room.

The male rabbit picked up the two bags and brought them inside closing the door behind him and setting them down by the side of the couch. He then joined his wife sitting next to her right as she comforted their oldest daughter leaning on her from the left. "Hey Jude, why don't you tell us what's got you down?" he questioned with a worried look in his eyes for his daughter.

Judy had never been the type to let anything get her down for long, and for her parents to see her this down, it was concerning. But right now she just couldn't find the strength to answer them, she had spent the last week in the slum only for it to get worse as time went by, and now she didn't even have the strength to answer herself that question; there was just so much that had her so down.

* * *

Nick sat in his beaten up leather chair inside the equal as beaten up abandon building. He kicked his foot off the wall sending him for another spin around on the squeaking furniture. He had been at this for about an hour, and that was after about an hour of pacing the building; and he wasn't one to pace, ever. But yet he had just spent an hour pacing the broken floor, and still there was no plan, no solution, no anything. With that in mind his brown foot kicked off the wall sending him for another squeaking spin.

Judy had left the city, he had left her, she had left her dreams, his dreams had left him again. It was funny that in the near forty eight hours they had spent their time together how dumb he felt for getting hurt the same way all those year ago; by believing in another lie. As a kit he believed that he could be more than a fox, but he learned quickly that the world wasn't going to let him lie to himself any longer. When he first met Judy he figured it should be him to show her what the world was like, he knew what the world really was and he thought the quicker she learned too, the better.

But little did Nick know that as he bickered with the police officer taking and giving snide comments, his eyes began to see her showing the world how she really was; a small rabbit fighting tooth and nail to make her dreams come true. And if she could reach her dream, if she could show the world she could be more than just a bunny; maybe, just maybe, he could show the world he could be more than just a fox. Boy was he wrong. Somehow without his knowing, Judy had become his role model, she became someone he wanted to be. Before the press conference more than anything what Nick wanted was for her to succeed and become a great officer, not that he hadn't started believing she already was. Alongside that he began to want to be something as well, something others could look up to and trust, someone who others didn't look at like a _fox_.

As Judy gave up on her dream Nick saw that it was time for him to give up on his dream, again. That thought flashed through his mind bringing back the memory of being attacked at his cub scouts initiation, reminding him of their faces and words, of the pain they caused, and the suffering that followed.

 _pain_. The whisper came from his emotions yet again clawing their way out of the mask he kept them under, and he kicked his foot against the wall again, only this time he had put far too much force behind it. The red fox was sent tumbling down in the chair causing him to crash sideways hitting his head again the hard concrete with the image of his attackers still burning in his mind.

 _pain. danger._

* * *

"Ahh chief Bogo, what a pleasant surprise." Greeted Dr. Shaw as he stepped into the main entrance of the laboratory. He was told there was someone here to see him however with all the commotion going on from an assistant dropping a case of blood vials he had forgotten who was waiting. "Sorry to keep you waiting, we had a mishap in the lab."

Chief Bogo looked down to see blood splattered on the bottom of the Dr.'s coat and began to worry greatly, that worry became quickly apparent in his red eyes as they widened in shock. "Oh- don't worry, they were only blood samples, nothing to be too concerned about. We already ruled out the possibility of the 'savageness' spreading through bodily fluids." He said seeing the concern of the large mammal. "What is it you have come to see me for?" he asked turning the focus back to the main reason of him being there.

"Is there somewhere we can talk privately?" he asked firmly showing the seriousness of this meeting. With a confirming response the badger lead them to one of the conference rooms used to discuss the labs important findings and research. "First tell me what you have found out about these savage occurrences as of lately." He requested as his start of the information.

Dr. Shaw began the awakening of Allison; the albino tigress found at the mall center and how she had behaved after the group had left. He went into detail about the separation between 'outbreaks'; savage mammals who do not come to their senses in a short time and are extremely aggressive, and 'aggravateds'; savage mammals who were found defending themselves or others and who would often snap out of it after a day at most. The Dr. explained that while they were not releasing 'woken' savages just yet, they were letting the have family or friend visitors while under strict supervisions, at first it was a test to see how they would respond, but it was soon found that it seemed to rapidly improve their condition.

As he spoke the chief carefully went through all the details in his head asking for more details at certain times and piling pieces of a puzzle together, a puzzle he began seeing form. "There are sever rather interesting things we have found out though in the past few days." He said getting the chief's full attention. "We received a report from your precinct about a savage's change being seen in person."

"What do you mean a report?"

"Well any reports that have to do with savage incidences get sent over to our labs for information and context, and in a report by Judy Hopps on the day of the peace rally."

"Yes I know that officer Ramirez went Savage, but officer Hopps was not there when it happened." The chief said informing the Dr.

"Yes I read that in her report, but it seems you hadn't read her report because if you did you would have known that there were _three_ savages at that rally." That statement hit the buffalo with great importance filling him with concern for what he could have missed. The look on the Dr.'s face was filled with excitement, the report was extremely detailed including the augment and what it lead to; and in return he recited the report word for word to the other. His small eyes gleamed with wonder at the discovery he shared. "Only Judy had witnessed this, and we haven't been able to track down either the pig nor the lioness. But what was reported here is remarkable, we believe that that pig had gone ' _savage_ '."

"The pig that squealed and ran away?-"

"Chief Bogo, how many pigs have you seen that squeal, that run on all fours? By savage I did not mean 'aggressive', no by savage I meant that he lost his logical thinking and gave into the call of his prey instincts. Even in her reports your officer admits to feeling her own instincts calling out for her to run from danger, but do to her police training and strong will she pushed through it." The smaller mammal said excitedly not waiting for the other to finish before explaining what was really going on. "While at the same time the lioness was responding to the danger present and lost her sanity to her predatory instincts, but somehow officer Hopps was able to prevent it. We have discussed what the cause for that might be and we theorize that the 'aggravated' transitions can be stopped if the situation that threatened them is stopped that they can be pulled out of their instincts and back into their logical thinking." He said with a wide grin showing his white teeth.

After that the chief was deep in thought thinking what it meant, thinking what all of this information meant now. "Have you done any testing on that theory?" he asked firmly needing to know more about it.

"No. Unfortunately the panel had decided it would be unethical to try to turn anyone into a savage." He said with a frown, obviously he cared more for the science than the morals. "But there is something you need to see as well." He said showing a picture of a blue mark on something white.

"well what is it?" the horned mammal asked looking over the picture on the phone, before accidentally zooming out. His red eyes went wide at the site of officer Ramirez strapped to a table with a blue splotch where his uniform collar ended.

"We believe that to be what is causing savage 'outbreaks'." The Dr. said grinning wide at their newest discovery.

* * *

"I don't think I have ever seen our Judy so sad before Stu." Bonnie said as her and her husband were sitting in the living room. She had just taken Judy up to her old room and sat with her a bit, still unable to get out a reason for the sudden visit or what was making her sad. "What do you think could have gotten her so upset?"

"I don't think I've ever seen a bunny that sad before." He said as a response to the first part as he put a supportive arm around his wife's shoulders. "Maybe she saw something on a case?" he asked to her and himself. While both of them loved their Judy very much, but between farming and taking care of the rest of their family they haven't been able to keep up with the news going on in the city lately.

"Why don't we call Gideon and ask him to bring over some blueberry pies? I'm sure that would make her happy seeing how he turned out." Bonnie suggested in hopes it was a good idea.

Stu's face lit up at the idea he hadn't thought of, "That's a great idea Bon!" he said happy to have something in mind to cheer their Judy up. He reached into his pocket and flipped open his phone giving the mentioned fox a call.

"Heya Gideon. How is everything going?...That's good to hear, yeah we are doing okay…So I had a favor to ask of you Gideon…Judy came back home today and is doing pretty rough, so me and Bon here were wondering if we could get you to bake up some of your blueberry pies to help cheer her up…thanks Gideon…can you bring them over Saturday? We want her to have some time to herself…Alright thanks again." He said finishing up the conversation and sliding the phone back into his overall pocket telling the rabbit next to him he will be taking over fresh blueberries later in the week.

Bonnie chuckled beside him after hearing the fox's thick country accent coming through the speaker enough to hear a few words and stammers but not enough to make out any sentences, "For as mean as he was as a kit he really turned out to be okay, even for a fox. Isn't that right Stu?" she said knowing just how bad things were between Judy and Gideon as kits.

As the pair of bunnies talked, upstairs Judy lay in her bed face buried into the soft fabric of the pillow. After her mom had brought her up to the room they sat there together on the bed, the older still trying hard to comfort the younger. But after about half an hour Bonnie thought the best thing for now would be to let her have some time alone to deal with things, Stu had occasionally poed his head in hoping for a change but unfortunately getting the same sad shake of the head from his wife.

Now the grey bunny was fast asleep having been mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. After her mom had left she plopped onto her pillow taking a few minutes to try and settle the tears that just wouldn't leave her eyes, eyes that burned red from all the previous tears. She snored into the pillow with her arms crossed underneath it and long ears sprawled over her back, at least in her sleep she didn't look as upset and pained as she did in her wake, at least until the dreams began.

* * *

Mayor Lionheart stood proud at the podium on a stage decorated with ZPD colors and logos. "Presenting our first rabbit officer and valedictorian of her class, Judy Hopps." He said gesturing to the rabbit stepping up onto the stage, but this Judy looked a bit different. Her bright purple eyes did not burn with excitement and joy, the burned with hate and anger as they looked over the crowd.

'Look at all these _preds_.' She thought to herself putting on a false smile as her badge was pinned to her chest. 'Makes me sick.' She turned to see her mom and dad sitting there at the front of the crowd looking worried for their daughter who is being sent to the heart of Zootopia. 'Do they still don't think I can handle myself? They still think I'm _just_ a little _bunny_?' she thought angrily seeing how concerned her parents were that she was going to be at the busiest area in Zootopia. "I'll show them, I will show _all_ of them." She said to herself quietly as she looked across the crowd at all her fellow graduates and at all of the guests.

In the real word Judy began tossing and turning till she was laying on her back, and as she did so her dreamscape changed.

Judy stood in front of a podium giving a press speech about the case she had just solved, however the speech wasn't quite the way it was when she gave it. "Predators have been going savage for biological reasons imprinted into their DNA, as of now any and all predators are to be considered dangerous." She answered the first question earning a shocked look from all the members of the press seeing a clear divide in expression between predator family and prey family.

The scene shifted again until it showed that Judy had a familiar red fox pinned down on the floor with a strong knee in his back as she tried to cuffed his paws together behind his back. "Let go of my son!" he yelled as another officer walked past carrying a squirming light brown fox wearing a purple elephant suit crying for his dad.

Judy's voice called out to him, "You know the law _fox_ , no predators are allowed to be out on the streets without a muzzle and collar." Her voice was cold, hateful, and unfeeling. She managed to finally get the cuffs on the fox and called for another officer. "Hold him steady while I muzzle him." She sneered at the red furred predatory as she brought the metal hardware over his muzzle and snapped the leather straps around the back of his head. "Get him and his son out of my sight." She barked at the the officers holding the panicking foxes.

"Yes lieutenant." They replied as they put the predators into separate cars and took them down to the station. Judy stood straight and proud revealing a new scar across her right eye. Chanting began picking up, it started as background noise until it grew unbearable.

"Show those _preds_!" "Protect the city!" "No more preds!" "No more preds!" images of any and all predator families being bound and muzzled flashed through the dreams.

The shock of the nightmare finally torn her violently from her sleep as she sprang into a sitting position kicking and clawing at the blanket. "Nick!" she screamed. After calming down and taking in the dark surroundings that were her room she collapsed back onto the bed sobbing and adding to the already tear soaked pillow.

Little did she know that the poor fox from her nightmare was suffering through a nightmare of his own.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

Okay we are getting into the week (well I'm going with a week) that Judy went home. So how did I do, as always let me know? I know it didn't cover too much but I needed to get a good scene with Bogo into this one for a few reasons. I'm thinking of having a few chapters focusing around different people but all having bits about the others just so that the next few chapters aren't "Judy is depressed, Nick too is very depressed, Finnick is grump, and Bellwether is evil." like over and over. Oh! So what did you guys think of hardened Judy?

Until the next update!-


	9. Finding Comfort in Pain

**Chapter Notes:**

Okay we are in the second chapter of the distant week, I'm sorry it's taking a few extra days for these chapters, got some other things going on and what not. But don't worry I am not abandoning this fic or my other fic, even if I get a little slow.

And I'm not sure how long it has been but I wanted to say another thanks to everyone for reading thus far and for all of your support with the story! Hope you all enjoy!-

* * *

 **Finding Comfort in Pain:**

After falling into his memories and out of the chair the previous day Nick's mind due to the pain and emotions he kept inside registered the pain as something attacking him, something hurting him more so than he could bear. And to protect himself from the five hostile mammals attacking him in his own mindscape.

The red fox could see their haunting eyes, he could feel their cold stares. He could hear the pack leader and feel his hate. It was all around him yet it wasn't it was ever present but when he focused it hid itself. The red fox could feel them all right there, but then he couldn't feel them any longer.

After a few hours long past the sun set the fox was mentally and physically exhausted and slowly as his body began to crumble under his weight he drifted into a restless sleep plagued by nightmares, by memories.

* * *

The red fox that was both Nick and not Nick was surrounded by five other mammals all his size or just slightly larger, he felt content and safe, he felt no cause for worry. Until the light in front of him went away and he was attacked. Those mammals he thought were his pack were attacking him.

 _pain. danger. RUN._ His young mind quickly gave into the fear clawing at his mind. All mammals knew that foxes were predator family mammals, but a fact long forgotten over time was that foxes were also prey to larger predators. As time had ticked by mammals cared only about whether or not something had sharp teeth or flat teeth, and if they had sharp teeth they were always a predator. But reality was that several predatory species fell under an unknown third category laying between predatory and prey families.

As the fear reached Nick's mind he knew he wasn't safe, he knew he had to get away; and so he did. The small predator ran whichever way lead away from those mammals eventually coming to a corner before the sadness hit and he collapsed there.

* * *

Once again the red fox found himself somewhere he knew from before, he didn't know why or how he knew this place but he knew he was safe here. And then he felt himself pressed against something warm and big; it didn't scare him, and it didn't make him worry. It made him feel safe, he knew that this was safe and he would be okay.

The other figure had him wrapped up in a tight comforting embrace, and embrace he still knew; an embrace he still longed for. He felt the back of his head being stroked gently, and his ears heard the the comforting voice, a voice he knew without having to look. "It's okay my baby, mama's right here." She comforted him.

Tears built up in his eyes, those words; why did those words feel so heavy they made him cry, but at the same time made him feel lighter. He gave a soft whimper and the other responded to his sadness, "Just let it out, it's okay to cry my baby." The soft voice said. Slowly the foxes whimpers grew and so did the tears running down his furry cheeks. And with his pain slipping away, slowly the red fox too began to slip away.

* * *

The red fox shot his head up to find himself in a dark secluded corner of a familiar place. The last bit of dream overpowering the first. His erratic breathing slowly calmed down as his surroundings separated themselves from those of the first dream. He knew that what had happened was not real, and now while he remembered those hateful mammals; he found out that while it still loomed there in his mind, it could not hurt him anymore.

Slowly as the adrenaline of the red fox wore away and his heart rate returned to normal, so did he. Nick's present time mind began to take back control from the mind of his instincts. His eyes blinked rapidly and each time they did they changed from their sharp dangerous shape to their normal circle shape, and once they were back to how they were the focus look in his eyes slowly came back. The far off gaze of his instincts slipped away to his gaze focused on what happened to him thinking everything over.

But he did not remember the long hours he spent in a serious panick, nor did he remember the first dream, the nightmare, of being attacked again. However, what did stay with him was the comforting dream that he had of his mom making him feel safe again, letting him know that things will be okay. And as he remembered two things happened; tears formed in his eyes at the memory his dear mom, but at the same time a smile crept gently across his face also because the memory he had. ' _Thank you, mom._ ' He thought to himself hoping wherever she was, that she knew he would always be grateful for her comforting heart.

* * *

Chief Bogo sat leaned against his desk staring at the wall with a bulletin of all the missing mammals and where they went missing. They had found out nearly 2 weeks ago why it was they had gone missing, but looking at the pic board while he thought always seemed to work better than just staring out at nothing. He was constantly glancing back between the pictures and the files of those mammals hoping to find a new revelation similar to how Judy first reached her breakthrough, by looking closely at every detail and seeing Nick's connection to Mr. Otterton and more importantly the triggers to some savages.

He hate to admit it even to himself, but that sort of detective work was not his specialty. It more obviously Judy's along with her personality and refusal to give up, she would have made a great detective; that is if she hadn't have quit. He thought back to when she had left her badge at the mayor's office as he looked over at his desk. After the rabbit left the room mayor Bellwether was hopeful in the thought that Judy would come back the next day asking if she could still be a police officer for the ZPD, and while he next expressed it; he was hoping for the same to be true. But now days later it was obvious that Judy Hopps was not coming back to pick up her badge again.

With a defeated sigh the large mammal stepped over to his chair pulling it out enough for him to sit and booted up his computer. While he waited for his computer to start up fully he thought about what it is he was about to do, it wasn't often that ZPD officers quite the force without warning but it happened more than Zootopia would believe; yes it is a city that many love, but sometimes the city's ways makes it difficult to love it. When any officer resigns from his or her position there was a correct process to follow, and seeing that it was clear the Judy Hopps no longer wished to me an officer it was time for him to send in a request to start the mandatory paperwork process.

The large mammal turned to his computer seeing it still not up after a few minute only to be reminded of why we was looking over paper copies of the Night Howler case files; 'System Updating…'. The white words followed by the spinning wheel plastered just below a picture of a ZPD badge.

His red eyes stared and watched the pin wheel for a few more minutes having been lost in thought remembering the details about the update; security fixes, lost data, format changes. The tech support crew had informed him before the roll call that morning and to pass on the message to the rest of the force that the computers would be down for the whole day because of it. After a defeated sigh he powered off the computer and decided that he would just send the email to the office tomorrow morning.

* * *

Judy was still laying in her bed come mid morning; which was late for most bunnies, but especially her who was always up before the sun. But as of now for the past few days she hasn't been in her normal go getter attitude, in fact she hasn't been in any upbeat and hopeful attitude. She felt like she had barely made it through the previous day. It was her first day waking bake up in her old bed at her family's home, and unfortunately for her she could not escape her fear even in her dreams. Her dull purple eyes gazed blankly and focused at the soft colored wall she was facing with her back towards the center of the room once again as she recalled her day yesterday.

* * *

She was woken in the night twice by horrible nightmares of Zootopia exiling predators to who knows where, but the worst of it for the sad bunny was she was at the helm of this rash and unjust movement. She didn't feel rested when the same came through her blinds forcing her to get up to close them after the light was no longer bearable to her eyes, or her mood. And after a few minutes of her being awake there was a gentle knock on her door before it cracked open.

"Judy? Are you up sweetie?" her mom's worried voice carried softly into the room as she poked her head in through the gap looking around only to see Judy still laying in bed. But to her surprise she saw the younger bunny turning over in her bed.

While Judy did not feel like getting out of bed she was not able to go back to sleep so she just stared emptily at her wall. But at the sound of her mom's worried voice she knew that she should at least let her know she was okay. Slowly she rolled over taking the covers off of her facing her mom's direction with her head down. "Morning mom." She greeted sadly.

"I heard you walking around and I thought you might be hungry after a rough day." She said glad to see her daughter is feeling up to talking today. "Why don't you come out and have some breakfast? I made carrot pancakes." She said in a happier tone hoping that it would help to persuade Judy to come out.

While Judy wasn't to hungry the thought of her mom's carrot pancakes brought a little light to the start of her day with the fond memories of that particular breakfast. "Okay mom, I'll be out in a bit." She said in a lighter tone than she did before.

Bonnie's ears perked up; Judy's change in tone and demeanor did not go unnoticed to her experienced ears. "Okay sweetie, take your time." She said now feeling happy for her sad bun.

After a few minutes Judy found herself having carrot pancakes with her parents and about a dozen of her siblings of assorted ages. She loved listening to them tell her about how school has been, about their days, and about their own adventures, it actually seemed be be working as a good home remedy to cheering her up little by little. But then they started asking about being a police officer and everything it involved, including asking if the city was really as amazing as she had always told them it was. Those questions little by little dragged her back down into her slum, while she tried to stay cheerful for her siblings the truths she hid from them eat away at her with guilt.

She spent the rest of her day with her parents trying her best to cheer herself up with the comfort of her family, but it was a slow process and even slower going. Throughout the day from Stu's constant poking and Bonnie's motherly instincts the couple had discovered that questions about being a police officer or a lot of questions about Zootopia tended to worse their daughters mood drastically and they decided to avoid them for the time being.

By the end of the day Judy once again found herself staring at the ceiling while trying to go to bed. She wasn't sure if she was feeling better, feeling worse, or just feeling less after the long day filled with both ups and downs for the little rabbit. As the clock ticked on and the stars moved across the sky slowly Judy slipped into an empty sleep; one with no nightmares, and one with no dreams.

* * *

The high pitched ding of her phone brought her back to her senses, and with an exhaled breath she rolled over and picked it up off the nightstand next to the bed looking at the notification. Judy's purple eyes widened as she read through the email from a ZPD office email address. The message read;

' _Dear Officer Judy Hopps,_

 _It has come to the ZPD's understanding that you wish to resign from your position as a police officer. While you have expressed your desire to resign there are steps and procedures that need to be followed in order for your resignation to be complete, please see below for details._

 _You will need to fill out the three page resignation form RF-J3, as well as schedule a formal meeting with the heads of the ZPD who oversee hiring and resignation practices, along with a formal meeting with your district's chief of police._

 _The form RF-J3 can be found attached to this email and sent to your district's chief of police along with a request to schedule a meeting with him or her. Please note that the last page of the form has to be notarized at our office._

 _Thank you for your service,_

 _Janett Marison_

 _ZPD Headquarters, office 382_

 _JMarison113_ '

Judy read over the email twice to make sure she had read and understood everything; this was it, these were going to be her final few step in abandoning her lifelong dreams. Zootopia was practically already in pieces from the discrimination and violence, 'Lionheart was right, it really did destroy Zootopia.' She thought to herself remembering his words to her before she read him his rights.

* * *

It was late in the day at the abandoned building Nick had been hiding out in when the sound of an approaching vehicle could be vaguely heard by the occupant inside, Nick wondered who it could be; while it was more than likely his partner Finnick there has been shifty mammals coming by before in the past years. But the familiar blaring music and pop of a muffler brought a light half smirk to the red fox's muzzle now knowing who came to pay him a visit.

The tires came to a stop just outside the door and the engine shut off and after a few moments steps could be heard coming over across the forgotten warehouse or factory. Nick looked of from his phone to see Finnick standing there with a fast food bag in paw, and a black eye. "What happened with the eye?" he asked concerned. While he had no doubt the smaller fox could handle himself it wasn't like him to get into fights; well not to start them anyways.

"Some pig was urking me on. I might have called him porky before he swung at me." Finnick smirked not ashamed to have egged on the fight. "I could same the same about you, what's with all the scratches on your face?" he asked just as concerned as he was curious.

Nick brought his padded paw up to his muzzle to feel the scratches through his fur feeling some dried blood in some areas. When he had came to his senses yesterday morning it didn't take him long to find out he had apparently scratched up his muzzle and parts of his head. But he had forgotten about them after he washed his face off shortly after. "Don't know, I woke of with them yesterday, must have been some nightmare." He admitted to the other with a chuckle.

Finnick climbed up onto the boxes piled next to Nick's chair and passed out the burgers, "I got frys too, unlike someone." He said while passing over Nick's frys. The two ate quietly for a few moments until the older fox decided to break the silence. "You seem to be in a better mood." He said quietly glad to see the change but not knowing what else to say about it.

Mid way to another bite of his burger Nick paused at the comment and looked over at Finnick who had looked away from him for a bite of his burger. "Yeah, I don't know I've just been doing a little better after waking up the other day." He said with a light smile remembering the dream of his mother's comfort.

Light brown eyes looked over the red fox curiously. What ever had helped Nick get better and over this slum quicker Finnick really didn't care what it was, while he was never going to admit it he hated seeing Nick depressed and was more than glad to see it lifting. He didn't see a point in forcing on the conversation so the two enjoyed their meal instead.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

I just really love Finnick having like a caring side to Nick don't you guys?

Okay well here we are! So how was it? Let me know. Okay so for the Sake of the chapters making sense I decided that the separation thing wasn't going to be a full week because I don't like skipping a bunch of days nor do I want to keep having to write just them being depressed.

I have also taken into heavy consideration a quick chapter suggested by someone on a good way to bring them back together quicker so I will have to see if that's what I want to do.

Well the next chapter will be under way soon and I hope you all enjoy!-


	10. Closure

**Chapter Notes:**

So I think this is going to be the last chapter with the separation week just because I have been having writers block with it and my other fic is taking a lot of time with research and things like that. One more thing about this chapter, I felt like I was dragging on the week to much so in this one I really start glossing over things just so we can move it along. Sorry about that, but in return for doing so, I might have wiped out a nearly 8K chapter for you all! :D

Before I let you guys go I just wanted to give another big thanks for reading along this far and for all the support and feedback I've been getting from all of you.

Alright enjoy the chapter!-

* * *

 **Closure:**

After Finnick and Nick finished eating they spent the day hanging around the inside of Finnick's van until night rolled in and brought the van inside the abandoned building through a large hole in one of the metal loading bay doors and decided to crash there in the van for the night; both of them leaning their seats back and sleeping the long night away.

The sound of claws scratching away at something woke Finnick up in a slight panic and he quickly turned over to see Nick tossing and turning in his sleep with his lower paws occasionally scratching against the glove box leaving white claw marks on the plastic. "Nick." The light brown fox hissed when the scratching started again. Getting no response he glared slightly at the marks on the compartment his light brown eyes seeing just fine in the black of night. Just as he reached out and grabbed Nick's shoulder to shake him awake the red fox's bright green eyes flashed open and he sprang into a sitting position.

"JUDY!" he yelled as he shot up in the seat. The image of Manchas lounging at the small bunny burning in his head, but luckily he woke up before his nightmare became worse. His breathing was ragged and he was panting heavily in his panic and worry that had followed him out of his nightmare; but then his emerald eyes took everything in and he calmed down.

Finnick on the other hand was nearly scared out of his fur and was pressed against the door out of shock from Nick's loud yell and him jumping up right as Finnick's paw came down and touched against his shoulder. "Jesus Nick!" he yelled at his friend as he tried to calm his own heart rate down as well.

The red fox in question was shocked slightly by the loud yell of the smaller fox's voice looking over at him seeing his ears still fully alert. "Sorry." He mumbled under his breath taking in a few deep breaths, "Did I wake you up right now?" he asked as he watched his small friend get back into his chair laying back down.

With his paws behind his head and his eyes closed with one cracked slightly open to watch Nick, "No I was awake already, I heard those timber wolves howling out there again. You just gave me a heart attack." He said still watching the red fox as he sat hunched over in his spot giving a sorry. With a sigh the older fox questioned, "What was it about?" his voice neutral as he spoke.

Nick lifted his head up and looked over at the other curiously before he understood what it was he was really being asked about. He started off by telling Finnick the actual story about what had happened that day after arriving at Manchas' house up until the police showed up as back up, then he told him what happened in his dream; in his nightmare.

* * *

"Clever fox." Judy said looking up at Nick with a genuine smile on her face. He had just convinced Manchas into helping them with the case by using his quick mouth the same way he used it to trick anyone and everyone in his hussles.

Nick looked down at her seeing no malice in her eyes or smile, he saw no sarcasm or disapproval in the look she gave him; infact to him it looked like the small grey bunny next to him was happy. The strange thought of making someone proud brought a light smile to his face as he looked at her with one brown eye brow raised.

But then from behind the door they heard the black furred jaguar give a shout in pain followed by what sounded like things being knocked aside. Both of them looked at the cracked open door curiously before taking a step closer; Judy pushing the large door open enough for them both to look in. And both of their eyes widened in shock to see the limo driver hunched over on all fours with his tail flickering behind him; he looked like he was withering in pain.

"Mr. Manchas?" Judy asked timidly as she stepped into the house crossing over the threshold as Nick stepped up behind her. But the sound of her voice was more than enough for his hearing to catch and he slowly turned his head to look at them; now his body was still and unwavering as it was moments ago.

The moonlight reflected the light green in his eyes; his dangerous slitted eyes. They glowed through the blackness of his house and focuses in on Judy's bright purple eyes; and a snarl quickly spread through his lips baring his glimmering white fangs, and with his dangerous snarl came a low growl.

 _fear. danger. run._ The instincts came to both the red predator and the grey prey, Nick froze in his fear but luckily Judy did not. "Run. Run!" she yelled to him snapping him from his thoughts as she pushed him out of the doorway and back to the plank bridge with the savage mammal bounding close behind him.

They were both speeding down the bridge when it shook violently under the weight of Manchas as he pounced at where they were moments ago. "What is wrong with him?!" Nick asked as he ran trying to keep his balance using the ropes only when needed.

Judy following right behind Nick was having a much harder time keeping her footing on the slick wet wood that made up the bridge responded as she ran, "I don't know!" they somehow made it off the bridge and jumped into a hollowed out tree using it as safe passage, until Judy's hearing picking up on the sound of large claws scratching through the aged wood. "Head down!" she warned Nick moments before the maw of the savage jaguar came snapping in from above, mere inches away from the fox.

As they crawled the rest of the way out of the fallen log they did their best to avoid the occasional claw as it broke through but the growling and hissing was a constant reminder to not slow down. Nick saw Judy reach at her utility belt and start calling in for backup as the continued their run. She was yelling into the radio for what felt like minutes while only seconds passed by before finally getting a response, and by then they were out of the log; and back into the open forest.

They quickly stood and where about to continue running, but Judy was out of breath from calling for backup; and she was slow because of it. Manchas gave a lounge at the slowing rabbit he had been chasing after; Nick saw this even through the dark out of the corner of his eye. Quickly he reached out and grabbed Judy by the arm and pulled her out of the dangerous mammal's path and took her down a path leading to the sky trains landing area.

"To the sky trains!" Judy yelled as if Nick wasn't already going there as she took her paw from his to run faster. Just as they got the platform a train was almost at the stop already; but there lead and now chaser was almost on Judy. In a split second decision she jumped at the lamppost in front of her just as Manchas came crashing down on where she was not a moment ago; his sharp claws stopping him from skidding across the wood.

But unlike him when she came back to the floor she went sliding off the edge hanging on by the tips of her furry finger; it really was a one thousand foot fall unlike the course she ran at the academy.

Nick made it to the train and opened the door for Judy frantically, "Get in!" he said but looked to see she was missing, "Carrots!?" he called fearing the worst.

"Go!" he heard her yell for him to leave as she pulled herself back onto the slippery platform.

 _RUN!_ His instincts burning through him as the larger predator growled feet away from him; and getting closer. ' _No I can't leave her!_ ' he thought to himself after having come this far with her despite everything else. He could have fought her for the pen and easily overpowered her and he knew it, but he wasn't that type of mammal, he wasn't raised to be like that.

But as he fought away the survival instincts the train slipped away from him, and so did the mental whisper telling him to run; even it couldn't think of a way out now. "Listen buddy, one predator to another…" he tried to reason like the sly fox he had come to be. However the black furred jaguar was not one who listened to reason at the moment, and he lounged at Nick. The red fox with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide did the best he could to brace himself for the impact to come; only it never did, instead he felt the ground below him shake slightly and peaked out from his braced arms.

Judy was by the light pole after just having attached one end of the chain cuffs to it and the other to Manchas' back leg; she didn't know if it would save Nick but it was the only thing she could have done, luckily it worked. The fox looked at her with a grateful smile that she returned with one showing she was glad he was safe, but between then the third mammal stirred again. "You still seem a bit tense so I'm just gonna-" Nick cut off his smart comment as the mammal he was trying to reason with made a swipe for him.

When he jumped away from the black paw he went stumbling into Judy knocking them both into the railing, thankfully though it didn't break this time; however that meant they stayed within range of the limo driver instead. As the black furred mammal made a leap aimed right at the red fox who had slipped away from his claws twice already he let out a loud growl.

Fear gripped the small officer and the con artist at the sight of the imminent threat, and Nick was frozen in place once again; but then he was shoved out of the way and everything seemed to go slow. As he fell he saw Judy take his place as she used all her strength to push him to safety, and she had a broken smile under her glistening amethyst eyes; those eyes and smile screamed so loud. They screamed of fear for this was the end, they screamed of sadness for this was her end, but they screamed of relief for this was not his end.

* * *

"And that's when I woke up." Nick finished the retelling of his all too vivid nightmare and glanced over to his audience now sitting up watching and listening closely.

"Sound's like a rough one. But don't worry, like you said she's safe at the burrows now." The fennec fox reasoned, although that comment only seemed to put a damper on things at the mention of the rabbit officer; who was now long gone, from both the city and from Nick.

* * *

Doug, the serum maker, was dressed in regular clothing that allowed him to walk around in the city without drawing attention as opposed to the hazmat suit he had just changed out of. He was currently waiting in the lobby area to get into the mayor's office to talk with the sheep in charge of this whole operation.

"Okay the mayor is ready to see you." The receptionist said from across the open room after hanging up her desk side phone. The sheep walked himself to the door and opened it revealing the sinister voice mammal staring out at the city she reigned over.

"Duke got me enough flowers to make two batches instead of one, so I brought you one of the darts like you asked." He explained after closing the large wooden door and stepping into the middle of the room.

"and the other?" Mayor Bellwether asked as she turned around to face him with a blank and uncaring look on her face as if not caring he had done what she wanted and then some.

"I haven't made it yet, but I can as soon as I get back to the lab." He responded quickly and fearfully.

The smaller sheep looked him over carefully and held out her paw opening her hooved fingers. Without needing to be asked the scientist of sorts produced a small bag with the new and improved Night Howler dart. The old ones were less dense so they weren't as heavy or firm, they were more like tiny water balloon. But this one was more like a squishy bouncy ball, the insides of this were more like a thick blue syrup rather than an actual liquid.

"What do you plan on doing with it if you don't have a gun?" he asked curiously taking a few steps back to the center of the room after giving her the bag.

She looked at him almost warningly as to tell him mind his own business, but then produced a red ball and put it into the bag with the toxic blue one. "I'm going to go pay _Lionfart_ a visit, and give him a gumball for doing so well to destroy the city with his equality nonsense." She explained as she got out of her chair and walked around the table. "Go back to the lab and I will call you with your next mark. Make sure you are ready. It's been far too long since the last savage." She warned as she walked to the door and put on a smile before opening it.

That smile sent a chill down the male's back. It was scary to see something so threatening and vile one second look so innocent and pure; 'a wolf in sheep's clothing' didn't begin to describe how wicked that particular ' _wolf_ ' was.

* * *

Back at the Hopps family farm house Judy was sitting in the living room with some of her siblings and her mom as her dad came back from going to the city about an hours drive from their house. "They charge so much for the ink these days we might as well save up to buy a new printer Bonnie." He said in his country accent with a chuckled as he fished around for the new ink he bought for their printer.

"But you said you didn't like the new ones with all the buttons and lights dear." His wife said as she watched the tv with about two dozen of their kids.

He mumbled something to himself before finally finding the right box and pulling it out. "alright Judy I'll leave the ink on the table so you can put it in, I nearly broke the darn thing last time I tried." He said placing the needed item out for his daughter.

"Alright, thanks dad." Judy said sadly and dryly. While she wasn't in the worst of her downs still, having to think about the forms and meetings she would have to take care of soon for the past day didn't let her get over things quickly; she just hoped that once it was all said and done that she could finally move on from her ridiculous childish dreams.

Judy waited a little bit before deciding she couldn't put it off any long and got up to go switch the old ink cartridge out for the new one. It only took her about a minute before the printer was ready to go and she got on the home computer and booted it up; watching sadly as the old equipment loaded up with its flickering lights blinking and its fan spinning up. And after a few more minutes she was sitting back at the old desk in her room with the freshly printed forms warming her furry paws slightly.

It took her just short of one hour to fill out all the forms, minus the notarizing on the last one. She had to occasionally check on her phone to find out exact details like her badge number, the address for their building in precinct one, along with a few other question with similar nature; but all in all she was just writing slow, as she was not fully invested into the long process. The only thing was she would have to wait till tomorrow to go back up into Burrow's main city area where the bigger stores and office buildings where in their small farming community.

And just as she was thinking that there was a knock at the door just before it opened. "How are you doing Sweetie?" her mom asked as she took a slow step into the room and looking around. She knew her daughter was still going through a rough patch and wanted to be able to help her as much as she could. "You've been in here for just about an hour, so I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

Judy turned her chair around so she could face her mom as she got her papers organized. "I'm going okay mom, thank you. I was just finishing up all the paperwork I told you about yesterday." She said in a sad flat tone.

"That's great dear." Bonnie said in a lighter voice happy that Judy was able to work through the down trot she was having.

"Would we be able to go to town tomorrow? I need to get this one notarized." The young bunny said holding out the last form for her mom to see.

The bigger rabbit looked at the paper and saw the spot that needed the notarization stamp down at the bottom, the only thing not filled out in the page. "Why don't you come out with us tomorrow and get behind the stall? Maybe seeing some familiar faces will help to cheer you up. Then after I'm done helping your father me and you can go into town." Bonnie offered coming up with the idea already knowing Gideon would be swinging by tomorrow; and after Judy agreed she quickly went to tell Stu so he could let Gideon know to bring the pies down to the stall instead of the house.

* * *

It was early morning and Nick was sitting in his chair out by the bridge looking down at his paw through the sassy styled sunglasses Finnick had given him before he took off headed back into the city, he said they were left in the van by some vixen and they weren't his style. While Nick didn't care for them he didn't feel like going into the broken city to get a better replacement for the ones he had lost some time in the recent weeks either with Judy or after. And in his brown padded paws was a plastic carrot.

He had been looking at it for a while now, after Finnick left and he went and sat out in his chair he felt something under his leg and reached down to see it; he must have forgotten it in the chair last time he was out there a few days back. As he looked at the pen in his hand a small idea popped into his head as the function of the pen came back to his memory. He pressed the button on it and heard his recorded voice come out, the same recording that had got him roped into helping the energizer bunny in her case in the first place.

The red fox put the carrot up in front of him and pressed the button to start recording. "Hey Carrots, how's it going? I thought I should return this to you somehow so, here it is I guess." He said before pausing too long and wanting to listen to the recording. He listened to it and cringed at how strange and forced he sounded with each word.

Nick spent the rest of the morning recording and then recording over stuff he didn't like, he wasn't even keeping track of time as he tried to redo his message over and over. He wasn't the emotional type and he wasn't the type to pour his feelings out for any mammal, but for some reason Judy didn't seem like just any mammal to him. Maybe it was because she was the first person to hustle him, the first in a long while to believe in him, maybe it was because he found hope in her, he wasn't sure of what it was but he felt he had to make it up to her with this last message.

* * *

The ex-officer stood behind the family's roadside stall where they sold produce to the community, and to be honest it really was a nice day. Even though she was under the shade of a stall's overhead tent the warm spring breeze brought with it a fresh and relaxing smell of the tilled earth all around her as is brushed past her fur ever so gently, and getting to see some happy smiling faces did seem to make it a little bit better; almost enough to forget about the problems of the city, almost.

"I hear from my sister in the city that you saved them from those vicious predators." The current customer said after asking for two dozen of their carrots. "You know you are a real hero now to everyone Judy, we are all really proud of you." She said trying to cheer up the younger grey rabbit; word had spread fast in the burrows, and the new word was that something happened in the city that got Judy down in the dumps. But little did the older bunny know was that it was comments and stories like the one she just gave were what was bringing Judy down.

The rabbit behind the stall tried her best to be polite as she packed up the carrots for the other trying not to let her mood get the best of her. She finished wrapping up all the carrots and putting them in a bag giving them over to the customer and taking the money. "Two dozen carrots." She said blankly as she did so, at the same time she had heard her parents coming up from the farm behind her.

"Hey there Jude, Jude the dude. Remember that one?" her dad asked trying to lighten the mood up with is always playful humor, but all he got in return for his efforts was a defeated sigh. He looked to his wife standing there next to him for support and saw the same look of worry on her round face as his, "How we doing?" he asked now curious seeing as his humor wasn't helping.

"I'm fine." Judy responded in the flat blank tone she had grown accustomed to the past few days. But everything about her gave the lie away; her slouched posture, down cast purple eyes, slow and defeated breaths, but the biggest give away for the depressed rabbit was her ears.

Which not even seconds later her mom had pointed out. "No you are not fine, your ears are droopy." She said her voice clearly showing concern for her daughter.

Another defeated sigh was heard before their daughter spoke not lifter her head from her paw or her eyes from their spot. "Why did I think I could make a difference?" she asked half heartedly to herself and to her parents.

"Because you tried, that's why." Stu began hopefully seeing an opportunity to make things better.

"You've always been a tryer." Bonnie added in with him also doing her best to make things better with their support for their little tryer.

Her parents were right in saying that; even when she was a young kit she was always trying new things and wanting to try and be more than a bunny. But now it was her trying that lead to her own failing. "Oh I tried," she sigh carrying out the 'oh' as she began. She finally lifted her head out of her grey paw giving a small slow gesture by rolling it as she spoke, "and it made life so much worse for so many innocent predators." She explained to them as she cast a quick glance at them with her dull purple eyes before returning her gaze forward and her cheek to her paw.

*honk honk* a car horn sounded alerting all three of the rabbits to the van coming up. While Stu and Bonnie's ears perked up as their surprise for Judy came up to them, "Well not all of them; speak of the devil, right on time." The male rabbit said proudly seeing Gideon's pink delivery van rolling up. Even Bonnie was smiling again at the sight, however Judy only looked up from under her large straw hat tiredly as the van stopped in front of the stall.

But the pink van that had pulled up to them surprised her more than she could have thought as she read the side of it; ,Gideon Grey's…'. She didn't even bother finish reading it in her head as she looked at the driver to see for herself and true to the name on the van there she saw the silhouette of a fox. "Is that Gideon Grey?" she asked her parents, not taking her wide eyes off the fox as she stood up and he got out of the vehicle. Plastered across her face was a mix of shock, confusion, and surprise.

"Yep, sure it. We work with him now." Stu said very proudly and confidently as he held onto the straps of his yellow overalls.

"He's our partner. And we never would have considered it had you not opened our minds." Her mom explained causing Judy look glance back at them as they talked. Both parents were smiling now having succeeded in cheering up their daughter with their surprise plan; and this wasn't even the best part yet.

"That's right, Honey." Stu said fondly as he looked at his wife; the one who came up with the idea in the first place. "I mean Gids turned into one of the top pastry chiefs in the Tri Boroughs." He said using the nickname he had given for Gideon as he gestured to the mentioned fox with one paw. A large smile proudly displayed under his large pink nose.

Judy was taken back, she was more than taken back; she was plain speechless. Her parents had always been a bit wary of predators, her father more so, but when it came to foxes her dad absolutely hated them and even her mom liked them the least out of any mammal. But now there she was listening to them proudly talk about being business partners with a fox, and the same one they had used for years as an example of why foxes were always bad. "That's-that's really cool you guys." Was all the young bunny could manage to tell her parents with a smile on her face as well, she was now more proud for her parents efforts than she was in a long time.

The couple smiled brightly at each other as their daughter's smile returned to her small round face as she looked at them before heading over to the back of the van to talk to the fox she knew as a young kit.

"Gideon Grey," she said in a light and gentle voice; now being in a light and better mood. As she stepped out from behind the back door she saw the mentioned fox slightly shocked to hear her voice as his eyes widened and ears perked up as he focused his attention on the new voice. "I'll be darned." She said looking at him up close now as she stuck her paws in her jean pockets.

Gideon stood up and turned to her trying to remember the speech he had planned out the past few days. "Hey Judy, I-I just like to say I'm sorry for the way I-I-I-I behaved in my youth." He stuttered almost uncontrollably as he twiddled his fingers trying to get out his sincere apology and put his barely brown paw to his chest to show just that. "I-I had a lot of self doubt, and it manifested itself in the form of unchecked rage and aggression. I was a major jerk." He explained dropping his paws he was gesturing with and letting his ears fall as he finished his apology.

There were rumors around when they were kits that Gideon's father was extremely abusive and negative towards his son 'toughening him up' is what he called it. But now it was obvious that he wasn't toughening the young fox up; but breaking him down and causing him to break others down in return. While these rumors never reached Judy as a kit she began hearing them as she got older and now after hearing Gideon explaining his self doubt she believe them to be true; and him to be genuine and kind as he was now chasing his own dream.

"Well I know a thing or two about being a jerk." The grey rabbit shrugged with a small smile spreading across her face. This single encounter was working wonders to help with blowing her gloomy cloud away.

The country fox smiled back glad to know that he was forgiven. "Anyhow, I-I brought y'all these pies." He said warmly and sweetly, bringing out a baking sheet with three large blueberry pies on it. They wore a golden brown weaved crust covering over the mountain of fresh blueberries underneath, the amazing and inviting smell wafted all around as they were brought into the gentle breeze. Without even realizing it the young rabbits smile pulled higher up her soft cheeks and the gentle predator return his own growing smile.

As the sound of children cheering for the pies grew louder and closer Stu turned around waving a finger at them. "Hey kids! Don't you run through that Midnicampum Holicithias!" he yelled with a small scowl to warn the three little ones quickly running towards them, luckily they stopped in time and began walking around the long way instead of cutting through them.

"Now there's a four dollar word Mr. H." Gideon said politely joking about the mouthful of a name the flower had, his thick country accent coming through with every syllable. "My family always just call them Night Howlers." He said happily bouncing his head side to side.

Judy was suddenly hit with a pang of curiosity at the familiar name, the one she had only heard once before from Manchas; the last mammal to see Mr. Otterton. She paused and then quickly turned her body to the fox next to her, "What did you just say?" she asked him quickly as if she didn't hear it right, as if needing to hear it again.

"Oh Gids' talkin' about those flowers." Her dad gestured with a paw to the row of deep blue flowers lining the field. "I use them to keep the bugs off the produce. But I don't like the little ones goin' near em' on account of what happened to your uncle Terry." He explained briefly to her.

"Yeah Terry ate one whole when we were kids and went completely nuts." He mom added in with a role of her eyes and head as she did so.

"He bit the dickens outta your mother." He husband added with a little smirk on his face.

As they ended their little story Judy whispered to herself, "a bunny can go savage." She said remembering when she had told Nick that bunnies couldn't go savage after giving her press speech.

The word savage had been here several times in the news lately the few times that the older rabbits actually did watch in and looked at Judy, "Savage?" Bonnie asked out loud as she compared her brother to the mammals going savage now in her head. "That's a strong word, but it did hurt like the devil."

Thoughts began racing around the mind of the amethyst eyes, pieces of a large unfinished puzzle began connecting together forming bigger pieces and falling into place. Down the rabbit hole she went as everything, every detail, of the case came back fresh into her mind; Mr. Otterton, Manches' story, his savage attack, every predator having nothing in common, Weaslton stealing the flowers. As all the thoughts rushed about her head her breathing became uneven in the shock and her bright eyes widened as she finally saw the big picture, the truth.

"Night Howlers aren't wolves, they're flowers. The flowers are making the predators go savage." She mumbled to herself as the final pieces came together to complete that picture. At the same time she wasn't paying any mind to the conversation that her parents were having while she was lost somewhere in her own mind as everything came into view and realization hit her like a truck knocking the breath out of her. Judy took a deep gasp as she breathed in the air she lost and began hitting the closest thing to her. "That's it! That's what I've been missing!" she yelled in her shock and realization as she shook her dad by the arm.

Both Bonnie and Stu were startled by the sudden shouting, the husband more so from being hit repeatedly; they both looked at their daughter wide eyes in concern as she made a beeline for the family farm truck. "OH! KEYS! Keys keys keys! Hurry come on!" she yelled as she bounced in place holding a paw up. Without thinking what for and why Stu got the keys and threw them to Judy who got them and hopped back to the truck. "Thank you! I love you! Bye!" she yelled animatedly before slamming the door, starting the car, and gunning the engine leaving a cloud of dust behind the barreling blue truck.

The three mammals left behind ran to the road to see watch Judy leave curiously. "You catch any of that Bon?" Stu asked the rabbit leaning a paw against him.

"Not one bit." She sighed as the truck shrank in the distance.

Gideon was the last to look down the road as he stepped up next to Bonnie. "Well that makes me feel a lil' bit better. I-I thought she was talkin' in tongues or somethin'." His thick country accent coming through prominently and heavily as he talked.

* * *

Finnick was scrolling scrolling through all the songs on his music player as he sat in the back of his van that. He came back into the city to make some more money, but with everything going on in the city it wasn't exactly safe for preds to be out alone in the streets, especially small ones like Finnick. So instead he decided had parked his red van in an alleyway around the same area that him and Nick often use to melt down their jumbo pops they got from Jerry's or any of his competitor's ice cream joints that were willing to sell to them.

He was still scrolling down the list when there was knocking on the outside of the van coming from the back door. ' _Damn porky doesn't know when to quit_ ' he thought because the pig he had told Nick about the other day had the nerve to complain about him parking there in the alley. The light brown fox grabbed his bat and threw the door open, "Who is it!?" he yelled as it swung open hitting the wall he parked next to. A deep and threatening scowl across his face aimed at where the head level a majority of any mammal would be.

But when he saw the bunny cop standing there in her pink plaid shirt looking at him practically begging already his expression turned to a surprised one and his ears focused in on her. "I need to find Nick. Please." She pleaded with him again for the second time in about a week, even putting her paws together begging him. Her long rabbit ears were cast down her back and her eyebrows were knit together as she begged even using the deep look in her purple eyes.

The fox lowered his bat and leaned against it, "Why so you can run out on him again? He is my partner and I ain't letting you put him down again." He said sternly and angrily at the bunny who ruined Nick's life along with the city.

"I know I hurt him and I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt him or the city; but I did, and now I have to fix it." She explained to him hoping he would help her.

Finnick stared at her as she spoke, he had learned to read people pretty well; and she wasn't hiding anything. With a defeated sigh he got off the bat and tossed it into the van standing on his own. "Alright fine, I'll tell you where he's at." He explained to her how to get to the abandoned building at the docs Nick and him used as his hide out and just as Judy went to leave he called out to her one last time. "Hey bunny." He said causing her to turn around and look into his brown eyes making him look down at his lower paws to avoid the eye contact. He took a deep breath and looked back at her, "please don't hurt him again." He asked of her.

She understood what he meant, for the past week he had seen and dealt with Nick most likely slipping into the same depression she had and like her parents he most likely couldn't make a difference on his own. She gave a firm nod to him, "I won't." she said before rushing back to her truck and heading off to Nick.

* * *

Nick was still sitting out by the bridge about an hour later enjoying the soda he had gotten from a fast food place close enough to the docs that he didn't have to worry too much about going into the broken city to get, and after he got his drink he quickly cam back to his bridge spot. But even going that far away from the outskirts of the city he got plenty of verbal threats and shouts about him being in the city; each one putting him in a worse and worse mood as they came his way.

It wasn't too long after he had propped his feet up on his bucket that he heard an old vehicle pulling up the dirt road and stopping before getting to the stone bridge, he heard the engine shut off and a door open and close; but even he couldn't pick up on the footsteps on the gravel path.

But what he did pick up on was the sound of his name being called out. ' _no that can't be_.' He thought at the sound of a familiar bunny searching for him. But then it became as clear as the day he was enjoying.

"Oh Nick." That voice, her voice, sounded relieved. Judy was there, Judy was back. "Night Howlers aren't wolves, they're toxic flowers." She explained to him as she hopped of the end of the bridge and down the hill side to stand next to him. "I think someone is targeting predators on purpose and making them go savage." She told him as she stepped up next to him.

She was barely over a foot away from him, after being so far away here she was right next time him. He had to use every bit of himself not to grab onto her and hug her right then and there, and slowly he focused on putting his drink on the box next to him and sitting up in the chair, leaving the feminine glasses behind on his metal footrest. "Wow. Isn't that interesting." He said blankly as he walked into the tunnel hiding the growing smile on his face.

Judy looked at him shocked to see him walking away again. Quickly following after the retreating figure she tried to stop him, "Wait, I-please lis- I jus-" she kept stammering all the apologies she had thought of on the drive from the city to the docs, she had no idea which words to say and which order to say them in. "I know you'll never forgive me. And I don't blame you. I wouldn't forgive me either." She admitted to her forced ex-partner as he stopped just outside the other end of the tunnel and she slowed her steps where she was.

Trying his best to hide what he was doing he slowly slid his hand into the pocket he was keeping the recording pen in. ' _I forgave you a long time ago Carrots._ ' He thought with a light smile pulling at his lips as he felt the pads of his fingers grab onto the plastic pen and slowly start pulling it out in front of him; out of sight from the small bunny he was now recording.

"I was ignorant, and irresponsible, and small minded." She said to herself and him as she glanced at him between each word. She put her two furry paws together in front of her as she began pouring her heart out for him to hear. "But predators shouldn't suffer because of my mistakes. I have to fix this." Her voice beginning to waver sadly as she tilted her head down and looked up at him through glossy purple eyes as her tears started building up. "But I can't do it without you." she said gesturing to him even though he would never see it.

The red fox looked down at the recording pen still recording everything. He didn't know if he should stop her, or if this was something that she needed to say. But even so, he didn't know what to say himself; because he felt like he needed her just as much as she needed him. And having her back telling him these things caused his own green eyes to betray him with building tears.

Judy was looking down at her toes still not thinking her words through, just going off of what she felt were the right things to say. "an-and after we're done," She sniffled at the thought of the next line she was about to say, because it would break her heart if it would come true. "you can hate me. And- and that'll be fine." She said through the sadness in her voice as she balled her small paws together to fight through her emotions.

"Because I was a horrible friend and I hurt you and you can walk away knowing that you were right; all along." She said sobbing through her emotions now as tears spilled from her eyes as she blinked and rolled down her cheeks; even tilting her head back and looking at the stones above didn't help stop them for long. "I really am just a dumb bunny." She finished not being able to take anymore as she lowered her head away from him crying and waiting for his response; even if it was to reject her.

Hearing the sad and broken rabbit pouring her heart out to him broke his own stony heart. After a lifetime of never letting anyone get to him and shutting them out he had forgotten what it was like to have someone because of you; and it was a horrible feeling to him knowing she thought he hated her and would walk away. ' _I could never hate you Judy._ ' He thought as tears of his own dropped to the dirt below his feet. He let go of the record button and rewound the recording by a few second.

"I really am just a dumb bunny." Judy's voice came back to her confusing her. As she looked up at the fox she came to see him holding up a plastic carrot pen; the very same one she had left him. He pressed to button again making it play back the sound, "I really am just a dumb bunny."

He turned around to face her showing his sad happy smile to her along with his glossy green eyes. "Don't worry Carrots, I'll let you erase it. In forty eight hours." He added with a playful smirk. Judy laughed in joy at Nick's welcoming smile and response, nothing could have possibly made her happier than what he did for her just now. She wipped the falling tears from her face and began walking over to him with a sniffle. "Alright get in here." He welcomed her with open arms as she pressed her head against his lower chest sniffling a little more.

"Okay, oh you bunnies; so emotional." He said as he pulled her into his embrace dropping down to one knee to be closer to her as he put his arms around her and as she put hers around him. What he was about to do was something he hadn't done for as long as he could remember; he poured his heart out to her. "I'm sorry Carrots. I could never hate you, and you don't have to worry about me walking away again Judy." He said as he buried his muzzle into her shoulder.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

Okay what did you guys think? I couldn't find a good stopping point till the very end and so I just went with it. I didn't want to change too much about her apology scene so I pretty much left that as it was, but what did you guys think about Nick's apology? Let me know.

So I know I was discussing going further into Judy's dreams but I didn't have to time to do it in here without taking too much away from the main story line, but I am considering it to be a short story after this is done with.

There are still several more chapters too by the way so don't worry about that.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as I did and I look forward to seeing you all again next time!-


	11. The Chase

**Chapter Notes:**

Alright here we are! This chapter will follow the story kinda close, okay pretty close. But I'll be sure to put in the extra tidbits and what not that I think everyone has liked. Not much to say other than enjoy!-

* * *

 **The Chase:**

Nick and Judy stayed in each others much needed embrace for a few more moments before Judy pulled away from him with happy tears glossing her eyes to see the same tears glossing his. "Come on Nick, we have a case to crack." She said to her glossy eyed friend remembering back to the day when he stood up for her in front of chief Bogo. She went still at the thought of her former chief. "Oh no. What am I going to tell chief Bogo? I quit Nick, I can't go around doing police work."

"Carrots calm down it's okay don't worry. If, no _when_ , we crack this case you can explain everything to him then." He said reassuringly with a gentle paw on her small shoulder as he put the carrot pen in her other paw; showing how much he truly believed in her, in them. With that the two hurried to the farm truck Judy had driven all the way here in and high tailed it back to the main road. Nick being slightly curious as always looked in the crate between them and spotted a little something for himself. "I thought you guys only grew carrots?" he asked happily popping a few ripe and juicy blueberries into his mouth and wrapping a pawful in his old scouts bandanna he had kept with him all those years.

Judy rolled her eyes at him seeing that he was back to his playful and obviously mischievous self, but she wasn't just ready to simply let everything go unsaid. She gave a sigh before she glanced at him to speak her mind. "Nick I-"

"Judy I told you it's okay." He cut her off having heard the heavy weight behind her exhale and with the same thoughts in his mind he knew what was coming. "We don't have to do this now. But like I said, I'm not leaving your side again. I promise I'll watch your back." He said with a lopsided smile on his face still feeling regret for having snapped at her in the first place.

The grey bunny glanced at him in between watching the road. "And I won't leave your side. I've got your back Nick." She said sharing his lopsided smile feeling the guilt of what she had said at the conference and then leaving the city all together.

"Alright what's the plan?" Nick asked with his trademark smirk proudly displayed on his muzzle.

Judy reached into her pocket and pulled up an article from a news site showing Duke Weaselton in the middle of when she had first chased him down; carrying the duffel bag with the stolen Night Howlers. "Know this guy?" she asked with the same grin she had used after she tricked him into helping her with different parts of the case.

"Like I said; I know everybody." He said smirking as he popped another blueberry into his muzzle.

* * *

"What do you mean missing?" Dr Shaw asked into the phone as he talked to the mammal on the other end. "Dr. Alexander is possibly the only scientist that has enough information and data from his jungle research expeditions to help, we can't just 'ask someone else'. See if you can contact his campsite again." The badger said before hanging up the line. He and the rest of the scientists had yet to find the origins of the strange blue substance for several reasons, one of which was the small sample size the found wasn't enough for even a second test and the other was because there was yet to be another case involving an 'outbreak savage' and even 'aggravated savage' incidents were less frequent it seemed.

As he rubbed his temples trying to think of what else he could possibly do to overcome this dead end his lab had reached. While everything was progressing slowing there had been a couple more mammals coming to their senses in their holding cells of the lower level. Each one of them confirming the separation between the two categories seeing as those who had been extremely aggressive had no clear memory of what happened and those who had been brought in the past week were able to recall being in danger or trying to protect a fellow predator who was in danger.

Now that things were set in the sense they could identify differences and follow up on smaller details it seemed that their information well was drying up with the lack of savage reportings; while it was good that the problem seemed to be going away it was clear to all the scientists that it was just being forgotten about.

* * *

"Come on make me an offer!" Duke's shrill voice was easily heard by both Nick and Judy as they crossed the street in a rundown neighborhood in the city. Buildings were abandoned with their windows boarded up along with the vines and plants slowing consuming the forgotten buildings.

Nick walked up to his pirated movie stand next to Judy, this wasn't his first run in with the shifty predator and he along with every other con mammal knew what his business was. "Well if it isn't the Duke of bootleg." He greeted sarcastically to the red eyed mammal.

"What do you want Wilde? Shouldn't you be meltin' down a popsicle or somthin'?" the shifting mammal shot back at the fox; Nick and Finnick also had their reputation amongst hustlers involving their street business they had been up to for a while now.

Judy not being one to let the criminal get away with anything already knowing he is involved with the case wasn't going to sit by. "We both know those weren't moldy unions I caught you steal. What were you going to do with those Night Howlers?" she demanded from the mammal with matted fur, it looked dirty and all in all looked like he had been electrocuted.

"Well if it isn't Flopsy the Copsy." He sneered at her as he took out his toothpick he was gnawing at and pointed it at her. "Well I ain't saying nothing, and there's nothing you can do to make me." He said before flicking it at her with a wide smirk on his crooked muzzle.

The small bit of wood bounced off her nose causing it to twitch and her to flinch at the sudden feeling in her nose, that only made her glare at the weasel. She glanced at Nick as he looked at her and he had a look in his emerald green eyes she wasn't quite sure if she liked or not, but the nod from him was all the clue she needed. "Get him!" he yelled as he jumped at the mammal in the white tang top and wrestling him to the floor. "Judy get a rope." He said while holding down the struggling mammal.

The former cop had second thoughts about this and infact knew that this was breaking several laws; but that didn't stop her from running to the truck and getting an rope from the back and tossing it to Nick. "Are you sure about this? We could get in a lot of trouble now Nick" she asked filled with her doubts as he began to bind Duke's arms and hands behind him followed by his legs and feet.

"Just look away and you don't have to lie about seeing anything." He said as he struggled to take the Duke to the truck and lifting him over the side seeing him unable to even move. "Hurry, we have to go." He said as he got into the blue vehicle quickly followed by Judy who took the wheel again. "Head for Tundra Town Limo Service." He said as she fired up the engine telling her everything she needed to know about what he had in mind.

As they drove in the awkward silence apart from the occasional muffled yell of the Duke that he managed to get past the cloth tied around his muzzle. "I never did it before. I only watched." Nick said explaining vaguely the questions shooting around Judy's mind. "When I was with Mr/ Big I saw a lot of things, and some things just stick with you." He said not really going into any further detail of the story.

"It's okay Nick we will get this sorted out. Besides I didn't see anything." She said with a smirk under her pink nose before accidentally hitting a speed bump and hearing another muffled shout from their third passenger.

"And I didn't hear anything." Nick smirked back as he turned his attention back to the road with a solemn look on his face. Despite having just cleared that up between them and not being ridiculed for his past life and despite the feeling of her trusting him the red fox was still deep in thought going over some things in her head. "Judy Night Howlers aren't the only thing making predators go savage." He said in a serious tone not wanting to have to say it himself.

The statement took Judy by shock, while she herself hadn't forgotten the incident at the peace rally between the pig and the lioness where the predator began to lose herself in the middle of being threatened and out of fear the pig ran away squealing, she also wasn't sure anymore if that was the same as the Night Howlers themselves; but then the real meaning of what he was saying hit her and she looked at him with worry. "Are you saying that you went savage?" she asked concerned for his safety rather than hers.

Her amethyst eyes looked him over but not go indication that he was going to answer; why would he ever admit to being a danger to her and everyone around him? "Nick it's okay. You were just defending yourself."

"But there was nobody else there." He finally spoke up. "I don't know what happened. One night I'm…dealing with things, and the next day I'm on all fours about to jump at Finnick. I just don't know." He explained with a paus not wanting her to know he had been crying his heart out.

' _Foxes can howl too. But they have to be extremely depressed._ ' Officer Wolfred's words came back to her head to fill in the gaps. She was stunned, she didn't know what to say, she didn't know what to do, but she knew she had to say something. "Nick it's okay. I don't know what happened to make… _that_ happen to you. But I'm not going to let anything happen to you because of it. I've got your back remember?" she said as she took a paw off the wheel and placed it comfortingly on her friend's arm the same way she had done weeks ago.

* * *

Judy pulled up into the limo service and pulling into their gated off parking area drawing the attention of several workers there as they quickly came over to the intruder. But what they weren't expecting to see was the same bunny from before along with Nick. The red fox in question rolled down his window and put an arm out on the door leaning against it, "Kevin do you think you can take us to Mr. Big? We need his help." He asked the polar bear with a gesture to the back of the pick up.

When Kevin went to look in the back the sight that greeted him was somewhat of a shock, a weasel was tied up squirming around next to a bunch of produce crates. But what he found most interesting of all was the familiarity in the way he was tied together; that's the way that they tied people together. With only a nod to Nick he grunted towards one of the other polar bears to have them get a limo ready to go to the estate, he reached in the back and grabbed the guest by the ropes and tossed him in the trunk of the limo earning more muffled shouting before he closed it off.

The ride to the estate was still slightly uncomfortable for both Nick and Judy with everything that they were doing by going through with this; but it was the only way for them to solve the case. Without really paying attention to how long it was and what it was that happened around them, they found themselves once again in the office of Mr. Big.

"Nicky, Judy. Im glad to see you are both okay with everything going on. How are you two doing?" the powerful shrew asked the bunny and fox he had come to like as he and his daughter sat together on the desk.

"I'm doing better. But we need your help." She said not wanting to waste any time.

"What did you have in mind?"

"We need some information, we just need you to get it out for us." Nick said shortly as Kevin walked in behind them holding the Duke in his paw. Apparently Nick was not as good at tying ropes and Kevin was, but he was somewhat glad at the implications of that fact. And in the polar bear's massive paw the weasel began to panic as the floor cover was removed and he found himself over an icy grave.

With Mr. Big's intimidating and rather effective methods the dark brown weasel was talking in no time telling everything he knew, it wasn't much beside a drop stop and the name of the buy; but that was more than enough for the energetic Judy to go with. But before she was out of the door Mr. Big called for her. "Judy, as your godfather and a crime boss I'm telling you; be careful. I don't know what's going on with this Doug ram you are going to go find, but drug rings aren't something to mess with. You be careful out there, and if you ever need me give me a call." He said both warningly and supportingly.

Meanwhile while the father was talking with the rabbit, the daughter was talking with the fox. "Are you doing better Nicky? You sounded pretty upset last time." She said concerned for the fox she remembered years ago that was beginning to show through the crack in Nick's stony walls.

Before answering Nick took a look at the bunny who started it all, while it hurt to have lost her it felt so much better to get her back; and this time he wasn't letting go. He looked back at Fru Fru with a soft smile, "I'm doing a lot better Fru Fru.".

She had followed his eyes and saw his smile, and that alone was more than enough of an answer for her. "You better take good care of Judy, Nicky. Or I'll have daddy ice you for good." She said in her high pitched voice with a warning finger pointed at Nick's black nose.

"Don't worry, I already promised myself I would." He said with a smirk at the strong will that seemed to carry in the Big family.

* * *

Ex-mayor Lionheart was being escorted to the room where inmates could see their visitors, but by the chain cuffs binding his arms together he knew it wasn't his lawyer again, he had no idea who it was he was going to see when he walked into the door and the curiosity was eating away at him. But when he got there the room was still empty, and with a sigh he took a table in the corner of the room and waited for a few minutes when the visitor's door on the far side opened up.

"You have fifteen minutes." The guard's voice was stern and serious as the opened the door for his guest.

Lionheart was shocked to say the least, never in a million years did he think this day would come. "Well if it isn't my old assistant; Dawn Bellwether." He sat tall in his chair watching her walk across the room to sit across from him.

"Actually I'm the mayor now, and it goes without saying but Zootopia is doing much better than it would ever have been with you." She said in a prim and proper persona, one that the predator in front of her was not familiar with; one that she had began to develop while reigning over the city.

"Well then, I guess I should say congratulations Dawn. I didn't know you had it in you." He said in a somewhat genuine tone but a hint of sarcasm as he picked up on her malice towards him. He couldn't shake the off feeling but being the mayor for some time he learned how to read mammals decently well; but the off feeling wasn't from the sheep in front of him, the off feeling was from him being unable to read her in the slightest. As he looked her over this was hardly the same sheep he had known. Before she was submissive and frightened, now he felt like he should be submissive and frightened. She used to wear more free and plain clothing, now she wore clothes that seemed to match her demanding aura.

Mayor Bellwether sneered in her mind at the lion in front of her but kept a neutral smile on her face as she thought about just how much she always hated this predator, how much she always hated every predator. As she felt the gumball and the toxin dart in her pocket she realized it didn't matter if he saw her the way she was now, and with that thought in mind she dropped the smile in place of a wicked grin. "I've waited so long for this day Lionheart. I've been waiting to see you and every other pred in this city behind bars, and now I will finally have it." She chuckled.

"What-"

"Oh don't worry there is nothing you can do about it now, it's far too late. But because you tried so hard, I brought you a little something." And as the now openly wicked sheep was reaching into her pocket to pull out the mentioned gifts her phone began to vibrate angrily in her pocket. She had just gotten off the phone with Doug before entering the prison and for him to be calling back so soon meant nothing good for her plans, and even worse for him.

"Uh there's a slight problem at the lab." Jessie's voice was heard through the speaker on the phone causing her to growl in anger at the interruption, but before she could snap at him he yelled out, "The problem just got worse!" and then it sounded like the phone was dropped to the floor before another voice came through.

This time it was Doug's voice who came through the phone and the fear and quiver in it was not enough for what the sheep would do when she got a hold of them. "What. Is. Happening." She demanded of him cutting off his rambling and panic.

"That bunny cop, she-she found us. And she stole the lab." He spat out without thinking, hoping and praying that he would be spared from her wrath.

That was the worst bit of news that she could possible have heard, once again it seemed that Judy had gotten in her way. This was the third time she had ruined her plans; first by arresting Duke, then by abandoning her badge, and now she is back and has hijacked the lab; this was going to be the last thing that she ever did to cross the wicked sheep. ' _You dumb bunny_.' Bellwether growled to herself before storming over to the door she came in through banding on it heavily waiting for it to be opened and pushing past the predator that opened it up for her.

Still in the room the large lion was near petrified, it was hardly ever that he was afraid of any one mammal, if anything he hadn't been afraid of anyone like he was now. The personality shift was not only sudden and unwarned, but drastic and unprecedented. Never before had he seen the small prey mammal angry, but this wasn't anger that he felt it was something far worse.

* * *

Nick and Judy had just managed to sneak onto the train at the drop spot Duke had mentioned. The crime fighting duo had just seen a ram dressed in hazmat clothing using juice and water made by a large batch of Night Howlers to make some sort of ball before loading it into a into some form of custom made gun and putting it into a heavy duty case. But more important than that he had just gotten off the phone being given instructions on the next target, and that was all Judy needed motivate her into stopping him; now.

"Where are you going? Get back here. What are you doing he's going to see you?" Nick questioned worriedly at her as she slowly crawled out of their hiding spot under the table and into the open area behind the workbench with a row of lab equipment on it. But as he saw the fire burning in her amethyst eyes he knew she was planning on something drastic. "What ever you're thinking; stop thinking it. Carrots! Carrots!" he hissed at her trying to warn her against whatever she was about to do, but that go-getter attitude that he admired about her wouldn't be put down because they were in a drug lab; it would only be fired up.

A determined furrow was plastered on her face causing her to look like a true hardened cop, and her nose was just twitching from the rush. As soon as the ram opened the back door to talk to whoever was outside she ran at him from behind and jumped at his back; using her powerful rabbit legs to kick him from the train entirely and stumbling onto the others as she closed the door locking them out.

"What are you doing!? You just trapped us in here!" Nick was yelling at her from behind the workbench where he had just crawled out from their hiding spot.

Judy was not giving up and she was not backing down; even from her friend. She turned around to face him and stomped her foot on the metal floor as she spoke. "We need to get this evidence to the ZPD!" the officer part of her taking full control as she demanded to her friend as she gestured harshly to the floor.

The red fox was slightly put off by the sudden shift in persona but didn't take it to heart as he knew how serious of a situation they were in. "Wha-Okay great. There it is; got it." He said as he closed up the case with the gun and held it out in front of him for her to see as a confused and worried look was spread over his face and hoping that it would be enough for them to leave.

But it wasn't enough, not for Judy anyways. "No all of it!" she said pointing to him as she ran past and into the conductor's cab of the train. She jumped up onto the small chair and looked at everything from switches, lights, to the large turn handle in the middle; assuming everything was in the off position she began flipping them on. But after the first switch the voltage gage sputtered out and dropped, but with a strong firm hit of her small paw miraculously it powered on.

"Oh great you're a conductor now hu?" Nick said sarcastically being fully against this plan of hers and that look clearly showed in his eyes and his grimace. "Hey listen it would take a miracle to get this rust bucket going." He explained trying to talk her out of it so they could just run for it. But as he was talking she was not listening and continued flipping switches and pressing button until finally she tuned the large handle and the machine roared to life and began its crawl forward. Nisk was udderly stunned as he felt the floor shift beneath him and the train move forward, "Well hallelujah." He said cluelessly as he looked from the friend at the controls to the controls themselves.

The newly discovered conductor had a look more serious on her face than she ever had before, her dark grey brows were furrowed together giving wrinkles on her nose, her long ears were straight back and focused on the sounds around them, and her piercing purple eyes set on the track ahead; nothing was going to stop them. After they had managed to pull away her look softened and Nick joined her in the conductor's seat as she kept both paws on the handle.

The red fox was smiling at his friend as she was now smiling and not so caught up in the heat of the moment. "Would it be premature for me to do a little victory toot toot?" he asked with a soft and warm smile as he looked down at her.

"Alright, one toot toot." She said returning his smile as she looked at him and then back to the tunnel they were going through. Next to her Nick was already grabbing the horn wire and had a large smile on his face as he sounded the iconic horn, even Judy couldn't help but smile at him enjoying the once in a lifetime chance.

"Well, I can cross that off the bucket list." He smirked at her causing her to shake her head at his playful antics. But as they were in that brief moment of peace a loud banging was heard coming from the metal roof of the lab. Both of the now worried mammals looked out just in time to see a ram in a white shirt break down the roof hatch and jump in, not even giving them a second to spare before he charged head first down the middle of the car. Thinking quick on his feet Nick was barely able to close the solid metal door preventing the ram from rushing in as he locked it. However that was not enough to stop him for long as the horned mammal began ramming his head against the glass window. "I may have to resend that victory toot toot." The worried fox said as the window began to give, no sooner than that though footsteps above were heard on the roof of the front cab. "Maybe that's just hail?" he hoped.

In moments of the sound a second ram burst through the front door getting stuck halfway as he struggled to reach Judy at the controls. Nick looked back to see him almost able to grab her as she tried her best to stay out of his hooved fingers, and without worry for himself he pulled the rams arm away from her. "Back off!" he yelled as he tried to defend the driver, only for him to the thrown against the door where he remembered the other ram that had been locked behind it. With a glance he saw through the shattered glass that the ram was charging full speed at the door and an idea formed quickly in his head. "Incoming!" he yelled to warn Judy as he through the door open nearly being missed as the dark whooled mammal blew past him.

That ram plowed right into the other sending him flying out of the door and getting himself stuck in the others place, but unfortunately for Judy she was now dangling from the horns of the mammal outside. "Don't stop! Keep going!" she told Nick because she knew he doubted this plan from the start, and with her hanging outside the train he might have stopped for her safety. As they charged forward in the steel box the second sheep was begging for his life as he tried to outrun them. "Do not stop this car!" Judy demanded, her hard cop persona coming back during the struggle to hang on. Neither of them saw what happened to the ram, all they hear was his scream, but they had come to far to stop now. Now in the eyes of the law they would fit under the term of vigilante rather than officer, as of right now they were hijacking a train full of hazardous material and headed straight for the city; the only way this would be forgotten is if it stopped the crimes.

On the front of the train the mammal Judy was holding onto regained his consciousness and threw her off and onto the roof somewhere behind him, Nick would have stopped right then and there for her had he not heard her land on the roof. After a close call Judy soon found herself in the open air with a rhino framed train barreling its way down the tracks headed straight for them. Her purple eyes widened in fear and shock at what would no doubt be a disastrous accident if they continued, but then she saw the fork in the tracks they were approaching, they only had to make it. "Speed up Nick! Speed up!" she shouted as she poked her head into the lab.

"But there's another train coming!" he yelled looking back at her and then at the approaching train filled with worry and fear for her life more so than his own.

Judy knew the risk, she knew the chances; and there was only one. "Trust me. Speed up." She yelled to him over the roaring sound of their own train in motion and the horn of the other glaring at them. Without anything else she ducked back out onto the roof out of sight of the fox, and Nick pushed the handle to full throttle gunning their car forward. He was filled with fear, filled with worry, but he was also filled with trust; so as he held steadfast against the control he only thought of the trust he had in the grey rabbit.

At the front of the car the struggling ram now forgot about the fox and rabbit as he tried to free himself from his front row seat to the impending accident. "Stop the train!" he yelled causing his flemmy voice to become strained.

"Hey, need some help?" Judy him confidently and sure of everything about to happen as if nothing could go wrong. She slid down the outside hand hold of the door once more using her strong legs to her advantage as she kicked the ram out of his stuck position and onto the turn lever. Just in time the tracks switched and their conductor's car scrapped by the full train with inches to spare.

* * *

Back in the ZPD's precinct one office building a phone was screaming out as it rung waiting to be answered, "This is ZPD precinct one, chief Bogo speaking." The large mammal spoke into his end of the desk phone before going wide eyed in shock. "What do you mean someone was thrown off a hijacked train?" he asked in shock from the strange statement.

"When did this happen?" he asked jotting down the information that he was being told speaking them outloud to make sure he got it right, "wait what did the rabbit look like?"

"Grey fur, purple eyes, and black ear tips?" he asked to be sure he had heard correctly and with a shock he came to the realization that it was a familiar description, it was the exact description of Judy Hopps.

"Where does that turn off track lead too? The old Natural History Museum station, okay that you sir." And with that he hung up his the phone by pressing his large finger to the call button and dialed the extension for the buildings overhead intercom system. "All available officers to the bullpen now we have an emergency taking place involving a train hijacking." His voice boomed through the entire building before he slammed the phone onto its dock and walked out and down to brief the officers heading to the bullpen.

* * *

The fox and rabbit were running through the natural history museum headed for the front doors when the mayor's voice called out to them. "Judy!" the voice was so cheery and light they were relieved to hear it.

Both Nick and Judy ran to the approaching mayor followed by two officers. "We found out what's happening. Someone is darting predators using a serum. That's what's making them go savage." The grey bunny explained showing her Doug's case that he kept the gun in, and Nick stopping just behind her as he was panting to catch his breath.

"I'm so proud of you Judy." The mayor said so kindly and genuine, that appraisal meant so much to the young rabbit it made her fluffy cotton tail wiggle happily. "You did just a super job." The sheep added with a smile and her hooved paws clasped together in front of her; once more this congratulations and approval made Judy wiggle her tail unable to stop it.

"Thank you ma'am." The smaller mammal said light heartedly and out of breath as the running and excitement of the chase began to get the better of her. The two slowly stepped closer to each other about to hand the case off, when the the realization hit her the former cop. _danger._ "How did you know where to find us?" she asked with her brow furrowed in confusion and accusation.

"I'll go ahead and I'll take that case now." The sheep said as she tried to make a grab for the case only for it to slip out of her small reach.

Judy and Nick began to back away from the wool covered mammals in front of them as everything fell into place where they stood; she was the one who called the ram at the lab. As they backed away Nick put himself in between the Judy and the others putting his arm out in front of his friend. "You know what, I think Nick and I will just take this case to the ZPD." The bunny said hesitantly as they turned about to run before seeing another ram blocking their escape. "Run." The duo said simultaneously as they darted off to the side.

At that time the wicked mammal dropped the fake face she had been carrying with her revealing her enraged scowl. "Get them." She demanded of her minions she had brought with her to the scene.

While turning the corner into the entryway covered in plastic Judy didn't see they tusk sticking out from a pile of artifacts; and as consequence for the slip in attention the tusk ripped through the outer side of her right leg. The injured mammal was sent curled up in pain to the floor curling up to hold her damaged leg in pain. Without skipping a beat Nick quickly came to the aid of his dear friend picking her up from under her arms pulling her to safety as she grabbed the case before she was picked up.

"Take this to Bogo." Judy said trying to push as Nick wrapped her leg in the bandanna he had to blueberries in causing them to spill out everywhere. She wasn't giving up on this case, even if it meant she had to give up on herself. Even if it would cost her her life she would distract the rams long enough for Nick to make it to the front door, then at the very least he could call for help.

"No I'm not just going to leave you behind." He said pushing the case back into her lap. He had promised to her and Fru Fru that he wouldn't leave her or let her get hurt. More importantly he promised to himself; but no matter who that promise was to, he wasn't going to break it.

"Nick I can't walk." She pointed out sadly offering the case to him weakly hoping that he would just take it and run; but a part of her hoped that he wouldn't.

He was done listening to her talk about why she couldn't go one, about him leaving her to what was coming, and he was done doubting himself about it. "I am not going to leave you Judy. I am never going to leave you again. And no matter what happens I will protect you." He hissed trying to keep his voice low so they weren't found. After finally getting those thoughts off his chest he felt better about himself and about their hopeless situation. "We'll think of something." He whispered to himself as he looked around at the blueberries on the floor; scattered marbles, just like his train of thought.

But then those scattered marbles became his train of thought. He quickly took the case from Judy which hurt slightly seeing him take it after just promising not to, but then as she saw him replace the serium with some blueberries she knew what he was thinking. "Now it's your turn to trust me Carrots." He said quietly getting an affirmative nod from her; this was it, this had to work.

Meanwhile during their small and quiet conversation the cynical sheep and her goons were closing in as she spoke to them trying to distract them, but that's when they made the run for it; Nick ran carrying both Judy on one arm and the case in the other. Their plan was a backup, a last resort, because Nick had hopped that if he could outrun them then they wouldn't have to risk the gun being used. But unfortunately with only a moment of reaction time Nick saw the ram chasing after them appear next to him and he tried his best to use the case and his body to shield Judy from harm.

The two were launched into the air and down into a pit display and the first thing that Judy felt was the sharp pain of having fallen on her leg as she whimpered in pain holding it. At the same time Nick began to feel the pull of his instincts again, the whisper was becoming a thought, and that thought was becoming a voice.

 _danger. fight. run. danger. run. fight. danger._ He was trapped in the middle of his fight or flight instincts trying hard to remain in control of either of them, but as he saw Judy curled in pain he felt the fighting call grow slightly more.

Above them a evil chuckle began to creep closer as the sheep loomed near the edge of the pit. "Well you should've just stayed on the carrot farm hu?" Bellwether suggested to the returned cop in her innocent and deserving voice. "It really is too bad. I, I _did_ like you." The evil mammal said hinting at the near future; the near end.

Nick was looking on shocked, he had hoped that the case would have fallen with them, but instead there it was in the sheep's hooved fingers. But Judy was ready for this, she had it planned out after Nick had shown her the impromptu plan and she subtly pressed the record button on the carrot pen she had in her pocket from Nick. "What are you going to do? Kill me?!" the rabbit accused, that tretorous idea make the red fox next to her worry for her life.

Bellwether laughed lightly at the idea as if it was a silly joke, as if it and everything it meant were nothing. "No, of course not." She said with a smile on her innocent face, before she dropped it revealing her unstable and twisted persona she had been hiding. "He is." She growled as pulled out the gun and shot Nick on the neck with the blue projectile.

The bite of the impact it had on his neck made him jump back from the sting. The blue of the splatter stood out in high contrast compared to the orangish red color that was his fur, but that blue color was not soothing, in fact it was burning; he was burning. "No! Oh Nick." Judy said trying to play up the role for her friend's plan.

 _PAIN! PAIN! PAIN! KILL! KILL! KILL!_ The familiar call of the survival instincts was not calling out to him this time, instead the burning from his neck was creeping into his mind ripping apart his sanity. 'No I….pro-mised…..I wou-ld…protect…her' Nick tried to think to himself with what little consciousness he had left. He could feel his mind slipping away giving into the burning that was taking over his body and mind, giving into the whirlwind of aggression, hate, and destruction that was tearing him apart. "Ju-dy. Ru-n." he tried to warn her through the excruciating feeling that was taking his breath away and making him cringe in pain. He could feel his claws and teeth aching in pain as he scraped them on the floor and grinded them together trying desperately to dull the pain.

"Hello police? There's a savage fox in the natural history museum. Officer Hopps is down. Please hurry." Bellwether cried desperately into her phone before hanging up and giggling a bit at the believable act before slipping the phone back into her pocket.

Judy looked from the sheep to her friend who she thought was huffing in false pain just like she thought she was in false danger. "No, Nick. Don't do this. Fight it." She said encouraging him along with their act. She saw the red and brown strands of fur on his neck begin to raise and heard the dangerous growling sound coming from him. _danger!_ Her survival instincts screamed at her to get away, but to her is was all part of his greatest hustle.

Nick bit through the pain that was eating through him, he held onto his sanity just enough to turn to face her and warn his dear friend to get away and run for her life, but even then it was like scooping water with a fork. When he turned to face her the pain both mentally and physically was unbearable causing tears to drip down his furry cheeks as he tried to beg her to run, but that was as far as he could hold onto his sanity "Ju-dy.." he choked out.

Her amethyst eyes saw the tears streaming from his green eyes, but then she froze in fear. Those were not Nick's eyes; the once light emerald eyes minutes ago that were filled with happiness were gone, and in their place were dangerous dilated eyes of a killer. Those sharp green eyes pierced through her own mind freezing her with fear.

 _RUN!_

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

Well what do you guys think? I loved writing this one let me tell you, I have been waiting to get to here for a long while now and I'm not sure how many readers got to this point but for any and all of you I hope it was well worth the wait! Let me know what you think about the whole chapter!

Until next time!-


	12. The Hunt

**Chapter Notes:**

Umm just a heads up, this one has blood in it so be advised. And I also put the part where they are knocked into the pit in the chapter because I didn't actually like how it picked up after the last one.

Well I didn't want to keep everyone waiting too long for this one, so without further delay;

Enjoy!-

* * *

 **The Hunt:**

After the ram had knocked Judy and Nick down into a pit display he picked up the case and brought it over to his boss where she opened it up to make sure the gun was intact and there. But when Bellwether opened the case she saw blue oozing out of the back of the gun and a sense of rage that she harbored only grew. It had taken weeks to finally get that serum dart and now it was destroyed, carefully she picked up the gun and using the tips of her finger she opened the compartment to find something both strange and amusing. In the place where the darts were held there was two blueberries sitting there, and a third that had gotten stuck in between the frame and the compartment.

When Nick has picked them up and switched them out for the serum before rushing frantically to close it he hadn't looked the gun over before putting it back in the case. If he did he would have noticed the blueberry juice that dripped from the gap between the slide and the gun, but he didn't notice the oversight in his plan and now he had to pay for it.

The wicked sheep took out the remaining berries and pieces of what was once a berry before reaching into her pocket and pulling out the small bag containing the blue and red balls. If anything good had come from the call at the prison it was that it came just in time, because if it came a moment later she would have given the toxic serum to Lionheart as a gumball; but she didn't, and now instead she was loading it into the gun with a sinister look in her eyes.

* * *

"Well you should've just stayed on the carrot farm hu?" Bellwether suggested to the returned cop in her innocent and deserving voice. "It really is too bad. I, I _did_ like you." The evil mammal said hinting at the near future; the near end.

Nick was looking on shocked, he had hoped that the case would have fallen with them, but instead there it was in the sheep's hooved fingers. But Judy was ready for this, she had it planned out after Nick had shown her the impromptu plan and she subtly pressed the record button on the carrot pen she had in her pocket from Nick. "What are you going to do? Kill me?!" the rabbit accused, that tretorous idea make the red fox next to her worry for her life.

Bellwether laughed lightly at the idea as if it was a silly joke, as if it and everything it meant were nothing. "No, of course not." She said with a smile on her innocent face, before she dropped it revealing her unstable and twisted persona she had been hiding. "He is." She growled as pulled out the gun and shot Nick on the neck with the blue projectile.

The bite of the impact it had on his neck made him jump back from the sting. The blue of the splatter stood out in high contrast compared to the orangish red color that was his fur, but that blue color was not soothing, in fact it was burning; he was burning. "No! Oh Nick." Judy said trying to play up the role for her friend's plan. But it seemed like his pain was more than real, his whimpering and writhing were painful just to watch, ' _that blueberry must have hurt_.' She thought to herself sorry that he had gotten shot in the soft spot of the neck.

 _PAIN! PAIN! PAIN! KILL! KILL! KILL!_ The familiar call of the survival instincts was not calling out to him this time, instead the burning from his neck was creeping into his mind ripping apart his sanity. 'No I….pro-mised…..I wou-ld…protect…her' Nick tried to think to himself with what little consciousness he had left. He could feel his mind slipping away giving into the burning that was taking over his body and mind, giving into the whirlwind of aggression, hate, and destruction that was tearing him apart. "Ju-dy. Ru-n." he tried to warn her through the excruciating feeling that was taking his breath away and making him cringe in pain, but his voice was so broken and low it wasn't heard. He could feel his claws and teeth aching in pain as he scraped them on the floor and grinded them together trying desperately to dull the pain.

"Hello police? There's a savage fox in the natural history museum. Officer Hopps is down. Please hurry." Bellwether cried desperately into her phone before hanging up and giggling a bit at the believable act before slipping the phone back into her pocket.

Judy looked from the sheep to her friend who she thought was huffing in false pain just like she thought she was in false danger. "No, Nick. Don't do this. Fight it." She said encouraging him along with their act. She saw the red and brown strands of fur on his neck begin to raise and heard the dangerous growling sound coming from him. _danger!_ Her survival instincts screamed at her to get away, but to her is was all part of his greatest hustle.

Nick bit through the pain that was eating through him, he held onto his sanity just enough to turn to face her and warn his dear friend to get away and run for her life, but even then it was like scooping water with a fork. When he turned to face her the pain both mentally and physically was unbearable causing tears to drip down his furry cheeks as he tried to beg her to run, but that was as far as he could hold onto his sanity "Ju-dy.." he choked out.

Her amethyst eyes saw the tears streaming from her green eyes, but then she froze in fear. Those were not Nick's eyes; the once light emerald eyes minutes ago that were filled with happiness were gone, and in their place were dangerous dilated eyes of a killer. Those sharp green eyes pierced through her own mind freezing her with fear.

 _RUN!_

Judy's survival instincts screamed out inside of her taking control both her frightened mind and fear filled body. Without her doing or meaning to she kicked at the mammal in front of her and felt the sole of her long feet conect against the side of its muzzle. As the fox reared back in pain from the kick she began to hop away on her good leg trying desperately to get anywhere safer.

The fox that was once Nick was withering in pain thrashing about on the floor. He was growling dangerously as he dragged his face side to side across the hard floor digging his claws into it next to him, he would snap his head up in attention at a sound coming from somewhere near before thrashing it side to side along with the rest of his body. His red toned fur was standing on end prickling against his shirt and the irritating feeling was driving up his madness and aggression, and to put an end to the pins and needles feeling all over he bit into the cloth near his arm tearing the fabric off of himself ribbon by shredded ribbon.

At the top of the pit the female sheep was laughing in happiness and yelling hysterically, "I'm going to turn every predator savage starting with that _fox!_ " Above the pit Bellwether was watching gleefully. She had never seen one of the targets going savage before and the sight itself was a rush for the sheep. Seeing something losing itself to the burning aggression inside their head, seeing something becoming so thoughtless and dangerous, it all brought chills to her; and she loved it. By shooting the fox whose name she didn't even care to know her plan would go through, because when police arrive they would find nothing recognizable left of the pestering bunny after being mauled by the savage fox.

But as she watched everything unfold the feral mammal was still only thrashing about violently rather than attacking violently. "Doug, why isn't he killing her?" she asked to sheep next to her disguised himself as a police officer and joined her at the museum entrance like she ordered.

Doug himself was confused, the transition never took this long even with the larger mammals. "I-I don't know. Maybe it's the new serum taking effect." He said confused and unsure hoping that the answer would please his boss. While she growled in impatience she made no move to snap at him as she kept watching.

Nick nearly completely shirtless was tearing apart the ribbons of cloth that had managed to stay wrapped around his torso scattering fibers and pieces all around him, but then he froze as a sharp scent filled his nose; the scent of fresh blood with the sound of a hurt animal.

Judy was hiding behind a rock watching from a distance as the fox she once knew was going insane, the sounds of him growling and snarling as he ripped at his green shirt were frightening and as she tried to hide lower her injured leg scraped against part of the rock. Even through the soaked cloth bandaging her leg the sharp pain of the rock scraping against it felt like it opened the wound ever so slightly causing her to whimper. But when she saw Nick focus his killer eyes on her she backed and bumped into a stuffed deer causing it to fall on top of her leg making her yelp.

Nick's hearing having caught the undeniable sound of a hurt animal saw the small rabbit toppled over by another mammal and jumped at it. The shirtless fox tumbled into an open area of the pit near the edge and began biting at the deer's muzzle and clawing its sides. Judy watched only feet away as the savage fox tore off the first limb on the doll and ripping it to shreds, followed by the second and third, then finally the fourth.

She began backing away in fear that in minutes he would become bored of the imitation mammal that he would become interested in the fear and panic coming from her. Inching away from the fox she never took her eyes off of him as he ripped apart the rest of the bambi turning it into a flurry of cotton stuffing and felt that rained around was absolutely horrified to see him snapping and ripping at the felt skin already in pieces lying about the floor circling him

From up above where the wooly mammals watching it just looked like the fox was toying with the rabbit, and Bellwether didn't have time to toy right now. While Judy was inching away from Nick they were going from one end of the pit to the other under where the wicked sheep was standing. "Doug why is he still not killing her?" she hissed at the sheep in blue next to her having lost her patience.

"I-I don't know." He stammered at the sudden outburst and rage he felt emanating from the small and hostile sheep he followed.

Bellwether had enough of this 'I don't know' nonsense, "WELL THEN YOU KILL HER!" she yelled with a deep scowl on her face as he shrill voice screamed out. Without any other warning or indication she grabbed him by the sleeve of his uniform and threw him down into the exhibit below.

As his face smacked into the floor he let out a yell, that cry of pain was heard by the fox; but due to Judy's uncontrollable fear of the red mammal in front of her she didn't even register the sound behind her. But what she did register was the predator snapping his head in her direction and she could almost feel his lust for her blood as he dropped the shreds of brown cloth from his dangerous jaws. Then her fear shot thru the roof as he began prowling straight for her.

Behind her the sheep that had just fallen in was glaring at his boss, but when she glared back with her army green eyes showing just how unstable her sanity really was he looked away and focused on the turned back of the rabbit. Quietly he began tiptoeing towards her as he drew his baton ready to deal a lethal blow and leave her for the savage predator, the same one that was out of his sight because the bright flood lights shining in his direction partially blinding him as he got closer to Judy.

 _DANGER! RUN! RUN!_ Judy's instincts were screaming so loudly in her mind that she was frozen in place, she couldn't move a muscle and she couldn't even think. Savage Nick was closing in on her and she couldn't move and she could barely breath; and even then it was uneven and weak. The screaming inside her head was defending her own ears to the point she couldn't hear the fox in front of her, nor the sheep behind her getting ready to swing.

The look in Bellwether army green eyes was a frightening sight in their own right, she had gone absolutely mad. The twisted grin on her face as she watched Judy being trapped without even knowing. If Doug didn't kill her then Nick would, and if Nick killed her he would then turn to kill her minion as well; he was easily replaceable to her plans to rule the city, and one insignificant pawn wasn't going to cost her the game.

Nick was crawling dangerously low to the ground as he approached Judy, while she couldn't hear it coming from his dangerous and threatening snarl was an even more dangerous growl. He began opening his clenched jaw as he grew near with. His fur was standing on end making him seem larger than he was, and his tail was flicking violently behind him as he stepped closer; his claws leaving scratch marks as he lifted them up off the solid floor. With death so close to Judy, her survival instincts slipped away, there was no escaping now even if she could run.

As she gained back her own mind she felt no fear as she looked into the fox's green eyes, she felt no sadness in what was going to come, she felt no regret for things that never did come, she just felt nothing. "Oh Nick." She said as tears dripped from her face spilling emotions she could no longer feel.

That is the last thing that Judy did before Nick lunged toward her causing her to flinch, bringing her arms up to defend herself as a jerk-reaction to the fox. His sharp hunting teeth sinking into cloth and flesh spilling blood along with a blood curtling scream into the air.

* * *

Chief Bogo was leading nearly ten squad cars to the natural history museum, the brigade of black and white vehicles had their sirens blaring as they sped through the city. One sharp turn after the next they went through the streets heading all the way from the precinct headquarters to the closed down building, but that's when dispatch radioed in. "All units be advised, a savage fox has been sighted attacking officer Hopps in the natural history museum, officer Hopps is down. I repeat; all units be advised, a savage fox has been sighted attacking officer Hopps in the natural history museum, officer Hopps is down." The voice came through over the radio.

"Who called that in?" the chief shouted into his radio to contact the dispatch. "That building has been closed for weeks, no one is supposed to be in there."

"The voice matched that of Mayor Bellwether's sir." The officer on the other end of the radio responded.

' _Bellwether? Bellwether is with Judy? But why would she be there?-_ ' the large officer asked himself before it clicked inside his mind what was going on in his city. The danger had been right under his nose the whole time and he was too blind to see it, what a fool he had been.

As they arrived to the museum he and all the cars following fast behind him screeched and skidded to a halt and the officers all exited their cars grabbing their tranquilizer guns all rushing up behind their commanding officer. "Listen up everyone officer Hopps is in trouble, the suspects are Mayor Bellwether and any rams and sheeps with her. There is a savage reporting inside so watch your back and each others." He commanded before rushing into the door throwing it open, and rushing in with his officers in tow.

As they stepped inside there were no lights on and the only lights were coming from outside; and the dark shadows were making them cautious as they moved through the building before they heard a blood curdling scream come from the back half of the building. Without any concern for personal safety they rushed down the main hall searching with the light on their guns as they ran around the piles of artworks and scaffolding.

* * *

The savage fox bit down with all the force he could while flying through the air feeling his teeth dig into skin and muscle. The screaming of pain hurt his ears as they were so close to the source. As he started thrashing his head and tearing the arm that was brought up to defend themselves a sharp pain in the side of his head forced him to yelp in pain and release the blood stained arm. With blood dripping from over his eye he growled dangerously and warningly as he backed up and arched his back to make himself bigger as he watched the mammal withering in pain on the floor.

Doug was just about to swing the wooden club down on the back of Judy's small head when at that split second the outline of a fox jumped through the blinding light with his sharp teeth aimed for his face. With no time to think he reacted by swinging his arms in front of him, but unfortunately for him one of those arms landed right in between the sharp teeth causing them to clamp down onto his limb. He screamed in sheer pain as teeth dug deeper into his arm as he tried to pull it out before swinging the club at the top of the foxes head connecting with it forcing the crazed mammal to let go and causing himself to stumble back.

When Judy saw Nick lounge toward her she flinched bringing up her arms over her face and closing her eyes, but what she felt was something soft smack against her small frame and not a second later horrible scream came from behind her scaring the little breath she had out of her body. She fell over onto her back and quickly rolled over onto her arms to see the savage fox attached to the arm of the sheep that made to serum, dressed as an officer. He was screaming in pain as the predator thrashed about and the only thing he could do was swing the black stick hitting it against the head of the fox.

Then after yelping in pain the fox backed away from the now harmful threat never taking his eyes off of it as he hunched himself into a threatening pose. Judy could feel the fur from his body brush against the back of her ears and shirt as she suddenly found herself under the fox, but as she waited to be attacked herself; that bite never came. Instead the fox above her stayed where he was watching the sheep intently growling increasingly more dangerous as Doug made eye contact with him and got to his feet. The fox that was once Nick had his shoulders pressed up together as he prepared to strike. Without warning the fox jumped from where he was and dug all four clawed paws in the thick wool of the sheep who was becoming more of a threat with every second.

Lucky for Doug his thick wool was somehow managing to keep the lethal claws away from his skin as the fox attacked him, but then he could hear his shirt and wool being torn apart as he tried to get the beast off of him; that same beast was trying to kill him.

Judy heard another yelp from the clawed mammal as he jumped away from the sheep leaving chunks off wool missing and a few new bit marks on his arms; the red staining more of his wool as they dripped. The fox had his chest pressed over Judy once again and his arms out to her sides still ready to pounce, and no sooner than he saw the sheep sway did he do just that.

The grey rabbit couldn't take her eyes away as the fox attacked the struggling mammal. The sound of growing, ripping, and screaming was to much for her to shut out as her eyes grew wide in horror, but what became even more horrifying was the decrease in screams and struggle from the criminal mammal as the fox kept up his third attack. "Nick stop!" she yelled without thinking causing the red fox to snap his attention towards her; his fur now stained a different shade of red.

He shook his head side to side a few times as he glanced at her before loud shouts he couldn't understand and the unmistakable sound of large hooves and paws grew louder. With the crazed look in his savage eyes still there he quickly made his way to the small rabbit and opened his mouth revealing red stained fangs.

Judy was horrified at first, and when she felt those sharp teeth against the back of her neck she froze. But they didn't bite down, instead the gently pressed against the extra furry skin and suddenly she was lifted off of the ground as the fox lifted her by the scruff of the neck and looked around for somewhere safe to protect her. In only a few seconds the red fox saw a small hole in the rocks big enough for the both of them, after putting her safely in the cove he curled his tail and body around her hiding her from sight.

Mayor Bellwether was speechless, while seeing the savage fox attack and kill her minion was not shocking or disturbing to her, what had left her speechless was the bunny still living and breathing in the pit with the savage mammal. Not only that; but the feral creature had picked up the rabbit by the scruff and was now currently over her protectively.

She was beginning to lose her own sanity as months of planning crumbled away until the sound of shouting and stomping came through the rooms entryway. She quickly threw the dart gun into the pit and shouted "Police down there!" she yelled in her high pitched voice as she switched back to her meek persona and pointed into the pit.

"Arrest her!" Chief Bogo yelled to an officer beside him as he pointed at the sheep, but as soon as he gave the command she went wide eyed in shock and ran. Chasing after her was officer Wolfred and McHorn, she never stood a chance at getting away for the trained officers as the wolf tackled her to the floor; this was his payback for making him wear this prison over his face. "Hopps!" the chief yelled as he and all the other officers prey and predator looked down into the pit to see the red soaked body of a sheep.

Without thinking the large cape buffalo jumped into the pit. "Chief don't move!" he heard Judy yell out warning him from somewhere. He looked around to see her hidden under an artificial rock cave in the side of the wall, and slowing going from being curled around her to crutched above her staring him down was a red fox with green eye, and blood drips coming off his muzzle. The fox was had a open cut above the eye causing blood to trail down his face mixing with the rest already there and it shifted his weight from paw to the other making his shoulders role visibly behind his lowered head.

The predator was growling louder as the eye contact was kept, as the challenge to power was being made, he was getting more enraged by the large mammal out to hurt the rabbit, but there were too many that were all behind the first waiting for something, and if he attacked the one in front of him the rest would attack the grey bunny beneath him. "Don't look him in the eye!" Judy warned as it clicked what was happening and warned her chief.

Without thinking the horned mammal turned his head down so he could still see the two but so that the fox couldn't see his red eyes. But at the same time the sound of all the officers aiming their tranq guns at the fox was heard. "No don't shoot!" the small bunny shouted from under the fox that was protecting her. "Please don't shoot!" she screamed not wanting Nick to die, not wanting him to be remembered as a savage monster.

"CEASE FIRE!" Bogo yelled snapping his head to the officers above him. The sudden shout startled the red fox as he crouched lower over the rabbit covering her with his body and warning the others to stay away. His predatory green eyes shifted from each mammal challenging them to come closer to him; and who ever did would be in for a deadly fight, nobody was going to touch the rabbit below him as long as he was there.

Judy could feel not only the fur, but now also the chest of the fox pressed against her back as he leaned down lower over her growling at her commanding officer the damp fur touching against her own fur reminded the grey rabbit of all the blood that was covering the fox above her. "Chief Bogo you have to get out of here while you can. We figured it out and mayor Bellwether was targeting predators with a serum, she was the one making them go savage." Judy tried explaining quickly to the blue mammal despite the dangerous situation they were in.

At the explanation all the predatory animals up above the pit turned to the mentioned sheep growling dangerously at her as they removed their muzzles and dropped them to the floor. The clanks of the black metal frames echoed throughout the room,.

"But we tried to get away but then we got hit into here and she shot Nick." She continued with part of the story as the pain in her leg began to come back with the adrenaline of the situation beginning to fade away leaving her exhausted and in pain.

Chief Bogo was listening carefully looking back at the mayor and to Judy before looking over at the sheep at the warning snarl from what used to be Nick. And just before he could ask about the corpse there with them Judy hit the play button on the carrot pen she had pulled from her pocket, it had played the entire scene from when they were pushed into the pit up until she stopped the recording after Bellwether threw the lamb to the slaughter.

"I don't know why he didn't attack me first but you need to leave before he attacks you." She told him as the sound of ambulances approached and the stretcher could be hear rolling through the building rushing to where one of the officers was calling for them, and just outside news vans were rolling onto the property after hearing all the police cruisers racing through the city.

"No. We have to get you out of here Hopps. I do not leave officers behind." He said while he raised his gun at the fox. It wasn't meant to kill but with a dos this big there was a strong chance that it would, but he needed the savage mammal to be unconscious before anything worse happened.

The small rabbit tried to get out from under Nick to stop her chief from shooting him but as she did do the fox jumped back onto her and was stuck in the side with the needled dart. He snarled at the buffalo for the stinging pain, but in a few seconds the pain dulled into warm numbness, and then that numbness into nothing. His dangerous snarl across his muzzle fell and his growl faded away. Eyelids slowly fell over green eyes and the fox staggered side to side with his arms shaking under him trying to support his now unsteady weight as he kept staggering and swaying. With a last effort he tried to shake the unstoppable feeling from himself by shaking his head side to side before it slowed to a stop as he collapsed on top of Judy pinning her beneath the dead weight of his body.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

Okay that chapter came out pretty quick! I really didn't want to let all the tension to fade away from the last one so I tried to get this one ready really quick. Now I felt I had a lot of problems with the scene when the police arrived because I really couldn't get a good understanding on that part or how some of them would react, but like I want to know what everyone thought about the chapter but that part especially. So let me know what you all thought about it.

The next chapter might be a little slower just because Instincts had a double update and now I haven't updated Tales in a while, but this is not the end of this fic.

Thank you all for reading along and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!-


	13. Report

**Chapter Notes:**

Here we are chapter 13, I hope the wait wasn't too bad, I wasn't able to use my computer for almost a week so things might go really slow while i get back on track of everything.

* * *

 **Report:**

Judy had managed to struggle her way out from under her collapsed friend and was now kneeling over him shaking his back hoping that he would get up. "Nick! Nick wake up!" she yelled in a panic for her friend. While he didn't wake up from her shaking the sound of his breathing and the slight his and fall of his shoulders brought some comfort and reassurance to the small rabbit. It was then that she realized the red fox was shirtless and that she was holding onto his soft fur, but rather than letting go she buried her muzzle into her arms crossed over her back. "I'm sorry Nick, I'm so sorry." she began sobbing as she blamed herself entirely for losing her friend to the serum dart that turned him into a savage mammal.

Chief Bogo looked on unsure of what to do, but just then the paramedics arrived to on scene as they rolled the stretcher up to the edge of the pit. "Hopps you need medical attention, you need to go now." he said as he came over to her side.

"I can't just leave him chief, not after this." she said as she lifted her head up to face the large mammal.

In the buffalo's eyes he couldn't have asked for a better answer, even though she was hurt, her first priority was still her friend; the makings of a true officer. "I will make sure he is taken care of and I will make sure the lab takes good care of him. Now please, you need to get your leg taken care of." he said gesturing to her leg which in turned reminded her of the ever growing pain beginning to throb.

"Don't let them do anything to him, it wasn't his fault, he was just trying to protect us." she said vaguely, but he understood that it was about the ram lying on the ground. With his promise he wouldn't let anything happen to her friend she allowed him to help her up to the medics above the pit. "Wait! Chief Bogo! He has another serum dart, it was in his shirt pocket!" she said pointing to the torn up pile of green fabric before she was carted away.

As she was taken away he began to take over the situation. "Alright I want this building locked down, no mammal or news gets in here, and I want this scene processed now." he commanded the officers and they began doing just that. Taking a plethora of pictures to document everything at the scene and checking the rest of the building doing the same and sending some off to check the train station where smoke was billowing into the building from. The chief decided to cuff Nick's paws and feet himself so that way if he did wake up he wouldn't be able to cause a problem, but then his eyes strayed to the blood staining his muzzle. While he knew safety was a their first priority he didn't like the idea of having a mammal fully restrained in metal; but he had to do it anyways.

Once the fox was in his full restraints the chief began looking through the shredded shirt pieces with gloves before seeing the mentioned toxic dart thankfully intact roll out from one of the pieces of fabric. After having the ball photographed he carefully put it in a thick plastic evidence bag so its contents couldn't leak out.

"Chief Bogo sir, the transport van is here and ready to move the, uhh, fox sir." An officer informed him not sure what else to call the savage mammal now that they knew what had been going on.

"Thank you, take this and put it in the glove box of my squad car. I will take care of the fox." the large mammal instructed his officer. Carefully lifting up the shirtless mammal and lifting him out of the pit before climbing out himself he took him to the back of the van securing him in place so he didn't get thrown around as they drove. After instructing the remaining officers on what to do he got into his squad car and led the van to the laboratory facilities.

* * *

Dr. Shaw was holding the evidence bag up to the light examining the serum ball inside. "You said this is what has been causing the afflicted mammals to go savage?" he questioned looking over it curiously.

"Yes, I don't know all the details yet. But when I do I will send over the reports to your office." chief Bogo explained to the badger as the stood outside the lab where Nick was being put through a few tests and scans. "I have to take care of more paperwork but while I am gone you will do your best to take care of this victim do you understand?" The chief 'asked' warningly of the scientist. "He might be savage now, but he was crucial in solving the case. Make sure his injury is taken care of and that nothing happens to him."

"Of course. And we will let you know what we find out from him and this serum." the Dr responded as he understood the implications of what was being told of him. Besides, after cleaning the blue substance of the foxes fur it was already easy to tell that it was thicker than the substance found on officer Ramirez, but yet obviously it was still the same chemical; and this was just fascinating to the scientist.

* * *

When Judy woke up from the anesthesia late in the morning she had called for a nurse using the call button built into the bed. The nurse came in to see if everything was okay before going out to get Judy her breakfast and to let the Dr. know that she was awake, but before leaving she put the laptop onto the table and rolled it over to the bed so it acted as a desk propped on top of the bed for the officer's use.

It was a few hours past lunch time and Judy was sitting in a hospital bed worrying herself sick about Nick while she typed up her detailed report on what had happened yesterday. When she arrived at the hospital she didn't have to wait long before she was taken into surgery where she was put under while the stitched the muscle and skin in her leg back together, but now she had a patch in her fur where they had to trim it short so they could properly stitch in. She had already talked to her family back home in Bunny Burrow to let them know she was okay and they said that one of them would come by in a few days when they were able to.

As she was deep in thought a sturdy knock came from the glass door before it slid open and chief Bogo ducked down as he stepped inside. "Good afternoon Hopps. How are you feeling?" he asked his officer who was hhin an overly large bed.

"I'm okay. My legs still hurts but I'm fine." she said as she rolled her foot that was connected to the bandaged leg. She was quiet for a minute, but because it seemed like she was going to say something at any moment the large mammal waited for her to speak. "Is Nick okay?" she finally asked looking up at him; concern and worry written across all of her small features.

He knew this question was coming, he had known it was going to be the first thing she would ask; and thankfully he had no real bad news. "Relatively speaking he is doing fine. He hasn't recovered from the tranquilizer but the Dr says he will wake up. The gash over his eye has also been cleaned and stitched up." he explained to her before taking a breath. Judy knew what was coming, she hadn't forgotten for a second what had happened to Nick. "But, the Drs. at the laboratory are afraid that when he wakes up he will still be under the effects of the serum."

Judy was quiet. While she knew that bad news was coming there was no preparing to hear that your friend was lost to side effects of a toxic chemical. But worst of all she knew something that her chief didn't know; she remembered her conversation with Dr. Shaw regarding Mr. Otterton. Because Nick was small in size and due to his low metabolism rate, his body wouldn't be able to fight off the serum for a long time. "And he won't get better soon will he?" she asked defeated as she clutched the bed sheets in her paws.

"They don't think so. But with the sample you were able to save they said they are already breaking it down and trying to find an antidote. There is still hope for your friend Hopps, don't worry." he said in a light tone to go with the good news he had on the situation. That good news brought hope to Judy's day.

With that hope as her motivation after the chief left Judy to herself once again she began typing up her report using her boost in moral as her extra motivation to finish it faster in hopes that whatever was in it would somehow be able to help Nick to recover quicker.

* * *

It had now been three days since the incident at the museum and Judy had just barely been released from the hospital and the first thing she wanted to do was to go see Nick. But unfortunately there was a few things that chief Bogo told her that she needed to do as he came to pick her up and take her down to the station, but he promised that once everything was taken care of that he would take her to the lab's facilities with him later in the day.

For the next eight hours Judy was explaining everything involving the case painstakingly detailed. Chief Bogo along with the other police chief and several detectives and officers from all of their presents were all present asking questions and taking notes, each one of them had a copy of her case report and would pull questions from there or what she was telling them. By the time the meeting was finally over they had gone through nearly five boxes of donuts and even more pots of coffee; it was a long and slow process but it needed to be done to make sure that the city would be safe and that justice would be served.

As promised chief Bogo lead her to down to the main entry lobby where he needed to talk to Clawhauser before they left, while he went down to the records department where the cheetah was relocated Judy waited on her crutches in the middle of the lobby for him to come back. Over the past few days the ZPD had been hard at work to process the scene and keeping the information from the press, no new equipment or teams were being allowed near the sites involved and no interviews were being given by any officers.

And because that the best that any station has been able to talk about was were rumors about what was happening and the scare information that chief Bogo had given out the day after to inform everyone in Zootopia that things have been taken care of and that everything was safe in the city. But those same rumors were also the worst things that could be spread in the city.

"Where is she!? Where's that damn bunny!?" a deep voice shouted as a small figure stepped in through the front entry way. "You!" his threatening voice cried out as he his bright orange eyes caught sight of the officer he was looking for.

It took a moment for her to recognized the small fox as Nick's hustling partner Finnick as he stormed over to her burning with pure hatred. _danger._ Her instincts and that moment came too late to the already injured rabbit as a furred fist collided with the side of her muzzle sending her sprawling backwards onto the tile; her crutches clattering to the floor beside her uselessly.

"It's all over the news! Nick was my partner! He was my friend!" Finnick shouted his heart out at Judy, his words were snarled and tears began spilling from his eyes beyond his control before he glared at the rabbit. "You killed him. And now. I'm going to kill you." He said dangerously low in a growl.

 _RUN!_

Judy watched helplessly as another fox began turning savage in front of her eyes. Finnick's paws tensed up spreading his clawed fingers apart showing the dangerous nails. His eyes trembled just like the lioness from the peace rally, and a dangerous snarl crawled across his muzzle revealing glistening sharp teeth. He crouched down low ready to lounge at the frightened mammal, but just before he did he collapsed onto the floor with the green tail of their tranquilizer darts showing against his black shirt.

Quickly chief Bogo was behind the downed fox; he never saw the signs Judy did so all he didn't think that the fox was losing himself to his feral side. "Are you alright Hopps?" he asked as he held out a hoved paw for her to take to help her up. "What happened?" he asked concern showing clearly in his voice and face as she picked up her crutches trying to balance on the one leg.

As the officer steadied herself on her feet she felt the blood trickling from her nose and lip where Nick's friend landed his punch, and she did her best to dab it away with the back of her paw. But before she could answer her chief was already cuffing and putting a muzzle on the aggressive mammal, "Wait chief. Please you don't have to arrest him." she begged as she stepped over to him on her crutches.

The large mammal froze at that request, this mammal just attacked an officer unprovoked in anyway. "He just assaulted you; an already injured officer. And-"

"He is Nick's only friend." The officer interrupted her chief before he got too far into his reasoning. "And the the only thing in the news has been rumors. He said that I killed Nick." she carried off feeling the weight of how these rumors were impacting the public. "Please can we take him to see Nick?" she asked with a pleading look in her eyes.

Looking at his injured officer with those begging eyes how could he possibly say no. "Fine we can take him to see Nick, but he is riding with his cuffs on." Bogo said with a defeated sigh as he gave into his softer side but still held true to the strong head that made him a strong officer.

* * *

Finnick started waking up feeling himself being jostled around. As he opened his eyes he groaned at how dizzy and out of it he still seemed, but even then he still noticed the weight of the cuffs binding his paws. "What the hell?" he slurred to himself still half unconscious from the mini dart he was shot with.

"Finnick? Can you hear me?" A voice called to him and he looked up to see that he was in the back of another police car. "It's Judy. we are taking you to see Nick."

At the mention of his friend's name he tried getting closer to her put the cuffed were connected to his chair, "N-Nick? What are, you saying?" he asked confused and still not fully focused.

Judy took a deep breath before she explained how Nick was shot with the toxic dart that has been turning mammals savage and was being kept at the lab to monitor him with all the other victims. After explaining why he was in the cuffs and hooked to the chair Finnick mumbled his apology to Judy for hitting her the way he did, a few more tense minutes sitting in the silence and the three found themselves pulling up to the research facilities. When they arrived Bogo reluctantly uncuffed the fox before letting him jump down from the tall seating.

And it wasn't a long wait before Dr. Shaw came out to welcome them to the lab once again. But this time he had a heavily bandaged arm. "Officer Hopps what good timing. We were just going to ask you to come by." he began ignoring the other two for the most part besides a small glance, but seeing that all three of them were focused on his arm he stopped himself. "Oh this, it's nothing to be concerned about, I wasn't paying close enough attention to Nick? Yes Nick." he questioned to himself before looking at the name on his file in paw. "I wasn't minding where I was standing when I was monitoring his behavior." he finished his always brief explanation.

"What did you do to him?!" Finnick snapped at the Dr having to be held back by chief Bogo. "What did you do to Nick?!"

Dr. Shaw looked at the fox carefully studying his features, noticing his features. "Who is this?" he asked Judy as he stepped closer to Finnick examining him, ' _his pupils are slightly dilated, fur is on end, and his muzzle is snarled. Could it be?_ ' the honey badger thought as he went over the symptoms of the aggravated savages after they woke up in his head.

"He is Nick's only known friend or family." Judy said looking at the Dr curiously as he studied the fox. "Please is Nick okay? We need to see him." she directed the conversation away from Finnick and back to the fox that they both needed to see.

"It's hard to say if he is okay or not. He came in underweight for foxes and is for more aggressive than any of the other victims, so it makes it hard to take care of his well being without sedating him first." The Dr. explained as he began to lead them out of the lobby room and to the elevator. "But with the sample we scrapped off his fur and the sample you managed to save for us we have already begun testing possible antidotes for the toxins the flower produced. So far we have found a few that have managed to cure some of the larger predators who were already close to waking, but the antidotes still aren't strong enough for the smaller mammals." he informed them.

While it was good news for the case and the city that progress was being made and that some of the mammals were getting better, Judy and Finnick only cared about Nick at that point. "What about Nick and Mr. Otterton? When will the antidote work for them?" Judy asked as she remembered the distraught wife she tried so hard to comfort.

As the group stepped into the elevator and took it down to the bottom floor the Dr answered her, "We do not know. Our facilities has been working around the clock with testing and making sure the other mammals are taken care of as well." he told her, "But I have taken personal interest in Nick because what we read in your report Officer. It is most intriguing to a scientist such as myself." he said reading the mentions police report that he keeps in Nick's file.

In the slow elevator it took a while for them to reach the floor but they had finally arrived and after walking through a hallway found themselves outside of a metal door leading to the wing where the remaining savage mammals were being kept, the rooms down here were much the same as the rooms in the Cliffside lab. They passed by rooms with claw marks on the glass and in the rooms, Judy saw Mr. Otterton sleeping curled up on the floor under his bed. Judy was about to step up to the glass of the last room where Nick was being held when the Dr grabbed her arms pulling her back to him. "Please, do not step over the line. We don't want any _incidents_ to occur today." he said gesturing to a yellow line on the floor where she was about to step over. "His paws are small enough to reach through the holes in the glass." he hinted as he brought his bandaged arm in front of himself.

As they looked at the room they saw that Nick was hiding under his bed watching them carefully as they stood outside. His body low to the ground and his shoulders hunched dangerously ready to pounce, and no later than that did he jump out across the room ramming into the glass with his paws. He was snarling viciously at the Dr exposing his sharp teeth in a display of threat and warning.

"Nick! Nick snap out of it!" Finnick yelled as he stepped up to the glass ignoring the Dr's warning. Nick responded by snapping his dangerous eye to the approaching figure, but to the Dr's surprise while the red fox growled dangerously and warningly at the small fox behind the glass he before thrashed his head violently. But he never jumped at him trying to get him through the glass, instead he went back to snarling at the Dr.

Dr. Shaw looked on amused at the savage foxes behavior before letting go of Judy and jotting it down in his file. Once again his warning was ignored as Judy stepped up to the glass in front of Nick. "Nick? Can you hear me?" she asked in a soft gentle voice hoping that it would reach past his savage side.

Nick was watching carefully the figure approaching the invisible wall, and when that soft voice reached Nick's heightened ears he froze. The voice, that face, that smell; it was his bunny. He began a slight whimper as he pawed beggingly at the glass in front of him trying desperately to reach her. But the glass kept them apart, and that made him sad seeing she was so close after so long but yet she was still so far away.

Watching safely from behind the yellow line on the floor Dr. Shaw was watching with new found curiosity writing down his observations even though they were being recorded by cameras above. He was fascinated to see the strange behavior that contradicts everything they knew about the mammals who had been targeted, the red fox actually fit somewhere in between the two categories they had come up with. This was a fascinating discovery for the Dr indeed.

* * *

It was now close to eight in the night and Judy was alone sitting outside Nick's room. Chief Bogo saw no reason to stay longer than he had to when he had finished talking with the scientist, and at that time Finnick also left about the same time but said he would be back again soon to make sure they didn't do anything to Nick. But in exchange for going over the details specific to Nick's behavior as a savage the Dr allowed her to stay as long as she wanted to; and that she planned on.

After Nick had risked his life to protect her and then even protecting her despite having lost himself to the dangerous blue toxic dart, how could she possible leave his side when there was nobody else that could be around. It didn't feel right to just leave him and even if there was someone else to watch over him she didn't want to leave. She knew in her heart that Nick was not dangerous, at least even if he was dangerous he wasn't a danger to her.

Currently she was sitting carefully outside the glass dividing them so not to hurt hurt leg any further and Nick was laying down on the other side pressed against the glass. He was in a deep and exhausted sleep because the Dr. informed her that he had been fighting sleep since he arrived and the only time he would sleep was under sedation for the testing. The only indication to him being alive was the occasional rise and fall of his shoulder as he slept with he head on his front paws, and Judy was lost in thought until a voice snapped her out of her mind-scape.

"Officer Hopps, please take your paw out from the room." the badgers voice crackled through the speaker in Nick's room stirring him from sleep. And before Judy was able to register what was going on around her she felt Nick nuzzle the side of his head into her paw, and without fully thinking she began scratching his neck and head as best as she could. Safely in the monitor room Dr. Shaw was completely perplexed by this, never before had he seen such behavior or gentleness from any of the afflicted mammals; even Mr. Otterton didn't show affection towards his wife when she visited.

After watching this for a moment an idea came to mind. It was unethical, unsafe, and dangerous; which is exactly why he was eager to find out what the results would be. "Officer Hopps, do you trust the mammal in front of you now?" he asked shortly.

Judy's ear's and the fox's perked up at the sound of the voice in the speaker, while Judy knew and understood the language the fox only recognizing that it was another mammal somewhere, but was quickly persuaded by the dull claws brushing through his fur. "I trust him with my life, he is still my friend." she said unwavering in her answer.

"And what if I was to unlock the door for you to enter manually? Would you be willing to step into the room?" he asked intrigued by her answer.

"Why are you asking these sort of questions?" she asked unsure if answering would be a smart idea; but the curiosity was eating at her as well.

The Dr. grinned at this, he knew how she was going to answer now, but still best not be rude to the officer who brought him so much data. "Simply because I am fascinated by your friend's behavior, and am wanting to see first hand how he would act if you were introduced to his territory. He could tear you apart, or he could act just as docile as he is now. But the choice is yours to make." he said already punching in his security code to unlock the door waiting for her to agree.

Judy took a few moments to think about this as she stroked Nick's neck one last time, "Okay, I'll do it." she said looking into the camera. A large and excited grin crawled across the scientists muzzle and with her agreement he unlocked the door and it cracked open getting the red foxes attention as the small grey paw was pulled back through the invisible wall. "It's okay Nick. I trust you." she said peering into his sharp emerald eyes as they starred back.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

Sorry it didn't seem like that big of a chapter, sometimes they just have to have some filler stuff and what not. Well at any rate, let me know what you though and thank you all from reading along!-

PS: Don't worry this is not the last chapter, there are more to come.


	14. The Fox's Den

**Chapter Notes:**

Well with my dislocated arm I write a lot slower, but because I had to take a week off of work I had way more time than I ever had before. So chapter 14, here we are!-

* * *

 **The Fox's Den:**

Nick's ears perked up hearing his rabbit's voice, he couldn't tell what she said or the meaning of her words; all he knew is that when the door opens someone steps into his territory. And this time he wasn't going to let it happen. As the glare on the door stopped him from seeing through the glass he crouched down low with his shoulders raised in his back; this time they weren't going to get away. When the door opened a bit wider his lips parted into a warning snarl as he prepared for his attack, but in that same moment the air flow shifted and the scent of his bunny filled the room.

Worried he turned to the glass wall where she was a moment ago to find she was gone, and then hearing the door close he turned to the intruder to see that his missing bunny was standing in front of him. He could smell her fear escaping her control as his eyes, ready to attack the trespassing mammal, found her in the open. But as her own amethyst eyes found his emerald orbs, his body relaxed and he righted himself from his position. Happily he scurried over to her tackling her to the ground in his excitement with his fluffy tail wagging uncontrollably side to side behind him.

The crutches that she had been holding to her side for support clattered to the floor loudly startling him into crouching over her defensively as he looked at the offending objects warningly; but as they did nothing but lay there his body relaxed and he went back to rubbing his muzzle on the sides of her face. By doing this he was showing how much he had missed her since the last time they saw each other, but he was also rubbing his scent onto her letting her and any other mammal know she was his; and his alone.

It had been too long since he was close with his bunny and he couldn't seem to get close enough to her, he just want to wrap himself around her and never let her go; but for right now he wanted her to know how he felt and cared for her. Occasionally Nick would stop the nuzzling to smell her face to see if she smelled enough like him; tickling his sensitive nose as he did so. While he could pick up his scent on her, he felt that it would send a better message if she smelt more like him; and so he continued the affectionate process.

* * *

"This is simply marvelous." The Dr said to himself as he was taking notes and recording everything he was seeing from his standing position in front of the monitor wall; he had switched Nick's feed over to the biggest screen so he could seen more detail in the picture. He had taken notes on everything from Nick's original defensive position to his relax at seeing Judy enter the room, then to his non aggressive charge for her to the way he shielded her at the possible threat of the noise crutches, and then to the way he was rubbing his muzzle onto hers.

While Judy didn't know that this was a way for him to mark his territory the Dr was well aware that this was one such display, it was something that he was more than excited to see the fox doing. This test of his had little to nothing to do with curing the remaining savages and more so to feed his own curiosities about the savage's mindset and behaviors, and the test was an absolute success.

The facility had looked at the way that all the savage mammals reacted with their spouses or partners, and while some of them took a bit longer before growling and snarling or didn't snarl as aggressive, they still showed little difference than their attitude towards the scientists there. But what Nick was doing was on an entirely different level of behavior patterns; he showed recognition of Judy and Finnick, displayed gentle and protectiveness to the rabbit, and on top of everything else was showing deep forms of affections.

* * *

Judy was stunned; she had absolutely no idea was was going on and even if she did she didn't even begin to know what to do about it. All she knew was that the way Nick's fur was constantly brushing through her own fur tickled her face and neck. Her face was beginning to burn up underneath her short fur. But as Nick went to switch to using the other side of his muzzle she tried to stop him by holding his muzzle with her small paw, unfortunately he was far stronger than her and accidently made the back of her paw hit against her nose and lip; the same spot that Finnick's paw had connected with earlier that day.

In response to the sharp pain Judy gave a slight yelp as it happened and tried to put her free paw gently over the sensitive area with a small amount of pressure hoping it would help with the pain and to stop the bleeding. Instead it only made her notice the taste of blood on the inside of her lip and to see it on her paw as well.

Nick heard his bunny yelp in pain with his ears alert he looking at the small mammal under him carefully. His dangerous hunter eyes still slightly unnerving to Judy, but she could tell they weren't looking at her threateningly; they were looking at her concerned and worried for her. As the sharp coppery scent wafted into the predators nostrils he became even more worried for her as the scent of her blood began filled the air around him.

He began to sniff at her trying to find where the scent was coming from; and it did not take long for him to find it coming from underneath her paw covering her muzzle. Judy froze as she felt his nose brush against her shirt as he began sniffing at her and her eyes widened when he started smelling at her paw and gently nudged it away from her muzzle careful not to hurt her further.

Judy for a lack of better words was confused entirely, "Nick wha-" she began to ask not knowing if he would be able to understand her, but was interrupted as his wet tongue brushed over her lip and nose cleaning away the blood. Judy was just paralyzed from what happened, her eyes wide in shock, and her ears and cheeks were burning more so than they ever had before. Nick was in his natural instincts at the moment, he had no thought or control to what he was doing; but he was still _Nick_ and he was still her closest friend. And right now the shirtless mammal was standing over her on all fours licking her face.

His tongue was smooth as it brushed over her fur leaving it slightly damp under its touch, he wouldn't press hard against her sensitive face, all the while he kept a steady rhythm with each pass. Maybe it was the burning in her face, maybe it was that she was so flustered, or maybe it was this feral method of healing and care; but Judy no longer felt the pain on her muzzle. And she went to protest, but that was another mistake.

When she tried to push him away and tell him to stop, her lips parted just enough for the tip of his tongue brushed against hers. And in that moment came her third mistake within the past minute; in that moment when Nick's smooth tongue skipped across hers she felt a jolt she had never felt before, and bit down had out of shock of the feeling.

With a sharp yelp from the pain that burned his tongue the tender and loving fox jumped away from his prized and treasured bunny with a whimper, and then quicker than Judy had reacted involuntarily so did the fox; in that split second, the protective vanished and the savage killer appeared. His eyes snapped to the mammal that had hurt him, those piercing green eyes had Judy petrified in terror.

They were the same shade of green, the same editorial slits they were moments ago, but now there was bloodlust behind them; and it was all aimed straight at her. His brow furrowed deeply with a vicious snarls exposing all his razor sharp teeth as his claws scraped against the tile with each step; and he inched closer.

* * *

The scientist, Dr. Shaw was watching from his standing position in front of the monitor as Nick was still being playful and affectionate to Judy when something startled him. "Dr. Shaw! What is the meaning of this!?" a fellow head scientist shouted as she caught sight of the monitor displaying officer in the savage foxes cell. "This is unethical!" the snow leopard stated very loudly as watched the feed.

"Yes it is, but she did agree to it." The honey badger said obliviously after recovering from the startled panic. "All the testing and research we do here is unethical, but it's needed to help fix this problem. And besides take a closer look." He finished with a gesture of his pen pointing towards the screen.

"A closer look?! Shaw are you…" The female scientist carried off as she turned her light blue eyes to see the fox they thought was a savage killer, nuzzling and rubbing his face all over the rabbit's face. "Is…is he marking her?" she asked shocked as she turned to the other mammal still taking notes.

"Precisely, that is exactly what is going on. It seems to me that our fox has found his mate and is claiming her as his." He said without being phased by any implications of what he was saying.

On the other hand Dr. Nancy was confused by everything that it meant. "But foxes and rabbits were natural enemies, foxes ate rabbits in prehistoric times not mate with them?" she questioned everything she had heard just now and was seeing on the monitor.

"Well if you feel so strongly about it you should go tell him." The smaller Dr. said not really paying attention to the other mammal. "But I must warn you, I don't think he really cares what your social views or opinions." He added with a small chuckle. That comment stopped the feline's rebuttal, and no later did Judy's muzzle area get hit and start bleeding. Both Drs. Watched as Nick began to lick her bleeding nose and lip.

"He is tending to her wounds? This is simply marvelous!" the honey badger exclaimed as he began writing furiously. Up until they heard him yelp and distance himself from the rabbit. "What happened I didn't see anything?" he questioned his fellow scientist.

Dr. Nancy was puzzled but she tried her best to answer anyways, "I think she bit his tongue for some reason?" she said unsure of what had happened herself. But that's when everything changed, that's when the savage fox decided that he was going to bite back; the Drs. could only watch helplessly as the predator began stalking his prey.

* * *

Judy tried desperately to back away; up until her back pushed up against the cold wall behind her. Small tears escaped her control as they streamed down her grey cheeks. "Oh, Nick…" her voice was watery and frail as if it would give with the next tear drop.

It was that moment, that broken voice, that sad desperate face which somehow managed to reach Nick floating trapped in the abyss of th savage bloodlust. Shakily his snarl dissipated and his expression softened as he came back to his sense; his primitive sense to be specific. His strong nose could smell the fear in the air emanating for his bunny, his sharp eyes catching the panic in her glossy eyes, and his hunter instincts picking up on the waves of freight she was giving off; and all of that was because of him.

Forms of regret, shame, and guilt all built up inside of him at the realization that his bunny was afraid of him, and that he had almost done something terrible. He pulled his tail between his hind legs and bowed his head to her ashamed of himself with his ears flat as he whimpered from the thick and heavy emotions swallowing him up. Slowly he turned away from his bunny and went to hiding underneath the bed curled deep into the back corner trying to give her as much space as possible; so that way he couldn't scare her anymore.

Judy had never seen a mammal look so hurt and ashamed of themselves before, and it broke her heart. "Wait Nick, it's okay." She tried calling after his retreating figure only for him to duck under the bed frame. "Nick I'm sorry, please come back." She tried to beg as she did her best to pick up her crutches and hobble over to the bed where she knelt down to look under, but her only response was a sad and heartfelt whimpering sound from Nick.

Before anything else could happen the intercom speaker in the fox's room crackled to life, "Pardon the interruption, but now might be the right time for you to leave. It has been a very eventful night. Why don't you meet me at the elevator and I will take you to a hospital room for you to sleep in for the night, it is rather late."

With a sigh Judy looked at Nick who curled further in on himself at her stare. "Yeah, okay." She said defeatedly seeing that she wasn't going to be able to fix this mistake by the time she would have decided to leave on her own. "Thank you." She responded and accepted the offered room. She turned back to her friend to see him watching her sadly, "I'll be back soon Nick, I promise." She said as warmly as she could hoping her voice would at least bring him some comfort.

And with that she stood with her crutches and left him to his lonesome with the door sealing shut behind her and locking automatically. Because the sound of the doors mechanics her ears didn't pick up on a sad desperate whimper as Nick lifted his head, watching her go.

* * *

"I must say Judy tonight was a far better research experiment than I could have ever hoped for." Dr. Shaw told her as they were going up the elevator to the hospital floor. "If it okay with you I would like to ask you for you thoughts on what happened some other time, and of course try again if you would like." He explained to her as they reached the floor.

There wasn't many occupied rooms so the Dr. just lead her to the nearest vacant room. After a moment he bent down to her level looking at her muzzle area where the cut on her lip was still slightly agitated, but it wasn't bleeding anymore. "It seems that he did a decent enough job cleaning and tending to that cut on your lip, however I can get a staff member to come take a look at it if you would like." He said as he examined her in close proximity; which made her very uncomfortable at his lack of social skills.

"No, I'm okay." She said taking a step back from the mammal in the white coat. After that he excused himself from the room leaving her for the night to reflect on what had happened with Nick. While she had the room and large bed to herself she didn't feel comfortable sleeping without some form of shirt and shorts in a public place, so she opted to get into bed after taking off her protective gear but still leaving on her uniform.

She felt the warm feeling of blushing red cheeks as she thought about the way he was so excited to see her again that he couldn't help but nuzzle her; she had nuzzled her parents before she left for the city because she was so happy but was also going to miss them so much, and in her mind Nick was just showing how much he had missed her.

But when she then thought about the way he had licked her, and more importantly remembering the way his tongue felt as it repeatedly pulled across her fur and the skin of her nose made her ears began to burn up much like they did before. However when the brief moment that their tongues met crossed her mind she was absolutely flustered. She couldn't help but to remember what came next, it wasn't the bloodlust in his eyes, or the fear in her heart, no it was the regret and guilt she saw in his face nearly broke her heart.

Just remembering how sad and hurt he was to see that he scared her was enough to clear her mind of all the flustering thoughts, and unfortunately for her Nick's hurt expression and whimpering as he crawled away to hidding was the only thing on her mind as she drifted into sleep.

* * *

Judy had allowed herself to sleep in till six because she was only a few blocks away from the precinct headquarters. After trying her best to straighten out her uniform she put on her protective gear and took the elevator down to the level where Nick was being kept for the time being. When she got there unfortunately for her she was greeted to a sight she was hoping not to see; Nick sleeping curled up in the same corner under the bed as the night before. It broke her heart that she had made him feel so bad about himself that her slept in that same position, not even caring enough to move. "I'll be back, I promise Nick." She said solemnly with a paw on the glass wall as she let her arm fall back to the crutch she was leaning on.

* * *

"ORDER! ORDER IN THE COURT!" the judge shouted as he hammered his gavel against the wooden block on his desk. "Officers of the court, please escort that mammal outside." The antelope at the head of the room demanded while trying to keep his emotions calm and controlled as he had the rather _passionate_ lion thrown from the audience seating. "Now if any mammal, prey or predator, decides to interrupt this court again I will have them evicted from the room immediately. Defendant please continue." The judge gestured for the for the zebra to continue her plea.

With a defeated sigh the stripped mammal got back up from her seat to finish her statement. She hated this case with every fiber of her being; she had become a defense attorney to defend helpless mammals who couldn't afford to pay to have a law firm defend them, she chose this job to help the weak not to terrorists. But she was the only defendant who didn't threaten quitting if she was given this case, but even so she was receiving public humiliation from it; the city, her coworkers, even family and friends wanted less to do with her as this trial went on.

"Your Honour, my client does not want to be viewed as a terrorist. Mrs. Bellwether claims that she was simply trying to look out for the majority of the city, not destroy it. Yes some mammals received the short end of the stick because of it, but with every law and regulation someone is going to be on the short end of the stick." The forced defendant tried to explain in hopes that something would help her to lesson her client's sentencing.

"Objection your Honour, segregation is still segregation and it's illegal and immoral." The city prosecutor argued. While nearly all of Zootopia wanted to see the wicked sheep suffer the full wrath of the law; and ironically enough for her that number was ninety percent of the population not in her favor. But that vast majority of the city couldn't decide on how to go about the proper punishment, they were torn nearly even between two options; a lifetime in maximum security prison, or the death sentence.

This prosecutor in question was the best the city had, and it was only fit that he be the one to take the most wicked mammal that the city has seen to court in front of all of Zootopia. The predators, the prey, city, the jury, the bailiff, the police, the crime lords, everyone but the judge and the attorney were stacked against Dawn Bellwether; and that was only because they were lawfully required to remain based in the trial.

The only thing that was for certain was that this trial was going to be a long one; perhaps the longest that the city has ever seen before. And unfortunately for Judy with major involvement in the case, she was going to have to be present through the most of it; including now. "Defence calls Judy Hopps to the stand." The zebra announced at the request of the next witness.

Once Judy was sworn in and found her place at the stand beside the judge the questioning began; and right away Judy knew where it was going. "Officer Hopps, how long have you been with the ZPD?"

"Just short of a month." She said shortly. Before the trial began the prosecutor spoke with Judy thoroughly about what she would have to go through because how key she was to the case, and to help her as best as he could the wolf official gave her mock questionings and explain that it was best to answer shortly so her words can't be twisted.

These general questions were just the defense testing the water to see how the rabbit would act under pressure, and unfortunately she did very well. "Officer Hopps, it says here that you were in the process of resigning from duty, why would such great addition to the police force want to leave so soon? Harassment in the workplace? Couldn't perform your duties?" the hooved mammal began to push harder with the questions trying to get the court to see that Judy might not have been in the best state of mind during the closure of the case.

"No it wasn't any of those things." The officer said quickly trying to defend her badge and the ZPD as a whole. "I felt that after the speech I gave to the press and the separation between predators and prey began getting out of control that I was the one to blame." Judy explained her reasoning for trying to leave; while it was hard to admit in front of so many mammals, she had to do this for herself and the rest of the city if she wanted for this case to be done for good.

* * *

Judy was required to be present at the hearing for the next two days after that as well, she wasn't able to go in for work and she wasn't able to leave the building. And even if she could there was a mob of press waiting to all get a piece of the story from whoever walked out the front doors; and Judy wasn't going to let them get the best of her again.

But now it was evening and the rabbit officer found herself in the lobby of the lab dedicated to help treat the savage victims; and waiting for her arrival was Dr. Shaw, and he seemed to be just glowing with excitement. "Ah there you are Judy, I've been waiting for you. We have much to discuss." He said while taking them up to an elevator and then leading them to a conference room.

Once they were inside the room he looked at the clock on the wall before speaking up again, "We have about an hour, and I would like to ask you about the other day when you were inside of Nick's cell as we talked about briefly the other day before." Explained the Dr. as he set an audio recorder on the table, "Just so I don't miss anything." He informed her with a grin.

With his questioning they had covered how she was processing everything that happened with Nick in about forty-five minutes. "Are you going to tell me what he was doing to me? I thought he was just happy to see me or something." Judy then questioned him.

"Well it's not really my place to tell you what it meant. It is very personal." The Dr said while looking over his notes from her story, "But if you must know; he was marking you." He said bluntly to the rabbit.

"Marking? What do you mean by marking me?" she asked confused.

The proud scientist was marveling at what might be going through her head and what might her reaction be to the truth, "Simple really, he was marking you as his mate. By rubbing his scent onto you he is establishing that he has chosen you as his life partner." The Dr. elaborated for the confused rabbit, and the confused look on her face did in fact make it that much better for him.

Judy was having a hard time processing what she was being told about the recent events, "But that's not _Nick_ doing that is it? Didn't you say that he can't think right now?" she was trying to clarify for herself to help sort this out.

"Say you were trying to protect a friend because you cared about them, would you attack anyone that came near them?" he asked getting a 'no' as Judy's response, "Of course not, that is irrational. But Nick on the other side of the coin would, in fact he would try to kill anyone coming to close to you. You see, he understands that he looks at you in a certain light and wants to protect you, but what he doesn't understand is social and legal implications. His mind has been lost to the effects of the serum; the uncontrollable aggression mixed with the loss of logical thinking leaves the afflicted mammals as 'savages'." The Dr. explained in full and in depth detail.

However Judy was still at a loss. "Wait so Nick-"

But unfortunately for her, the Dr's social skills did not include repeating himself. "I think it would be best if you asked him yourself." He said as he cut the officer off. "The antidote has proved successful to the toxins in the serum, and he should be waking up in…five minutes." He said pausing to look back at the clock behind him.

Judy's ears shot up at the good news; the first good news she has heard in awhile. "Please can you take me to him?" she asked beggingly to the Dr. who was more than happy to see if Nick would remember anything from the past week, and so he took Judy to the room where he was still fast asleep. Judy was stuck on what to do, should she be there for him, should she be waiting at his bedside or was that too much; part of her didn't know, and part of her didn't care. He was her closest friend, and he risked his life for her several times, slowly Judy put her paws on his chest giving him a light shake. "Nick please wake up, I need you."

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

Let me know what you guys thought about the chapter. I had fun writing the feral Nick parts and I thought it was cute picturing him doing those things for her, but now the choice is Judy's; I wonder what she will do? Thank you everyone for all the support with the story so far and I am glad you have all enjoyed it so much. I can't wait to see all the feedback on the chapter.

See you all again soon!-


	15. Patience is a Virtue

**Chapter Notes:**

Here we are with chapter fifteen! Instincts has come a long way for me and I never thought it would be this big, so thank you to all the readers and supporters coming time and time again!

I hope you enjoy and I'll see you at the bottom!-

* * *

 **Patience is a Virtue:**

"Nick please wake up, I need you." Judy's voice was begging for her friend to wake up from his medicine induced sleep. From her voice and her touch the red fox that cared for her began to stir.

Nick's chest rose up higher than it had in the short time Judy was there beside him hoping to see his emerald eyes open for her, and with his deep inhale his head turned from the right side to his left; facing her. A wide smile spread across Judy's face, but then Nick exhaled and he went back to his slow and steady breaths; still fast asleep.

"Wh-why isn't he waking up?" the officer asked worried about what it might mean for the still unconscious friend. Her resolve and confidence beginning to falter under the new weight of the situation.

The Dr. was also just as confused as she was and he began thinking to himself where things might have gone wrong, ' _we accounted for his weight and metabolism, his diet, his species, everything; even the serum-_ ' and then the big picture fell apart and into its new shape. "The serum." He whispered aloud in his shock, but that whisper was more than enough.

"What about the serum?" Judy questioned, "I thought you said the antidote would work?" her voice raising as tears began to form in the corners of her amethyst orbs.

This was something that could not be tested for because Nick was the only one affected by this stronger dart, and for that they could not have known what really happened; until now. "From testing the dart you found we discovered a difference in amount between the Nick and all the others, but we could not be certain of what it was because Nick was the only one." He began explaining the sudden dilemma. "We knew the dart's concentration was greatly higher, we had just assumed it was a multiple of some factor, but…"

Judy nearly snapped at his pause, this wasn't some test, this was her best friend! "But what?"

"…but it wasn't a multiple of a factor, it was a power." He said regretfully of his oversight. He was Dr. Shaw. He was selected as the lead in helping these mammals because he was the most qualified for this and had far more experience in anything close to it; but yet here Nick was in a comma because he had failed to think this through before giving him the antidote.

Thoughts were buzzing around Judy's head, she was filled with worry over her friend and it was clouding her logical thinking. However bunnies were good at multiplying; and everything began rushing into clarity. It was the easiest number that she remembered off the top of her head, and it put this into perspective. 2 multiplied by 10 would be 20, that was easy and simple, but 2 to the power of 10 would be 1,024. She didn't know what numbers Nick's case was or what power it involved, but no matter what it was there was no light at the end of this tunnel.

Judy turned back to Nick shaking him softly. "Nick come on, get up." Her emotions overcoming her as she too realized what this meant for the red fox lying on the table, when he woke up he would still be in a savage state of mind; if he ever woke up. "plea…se…Nick…" tears began dripping onto his light blue bed sheets.

 _sadness…anger…_

The call of instincts bubbled as emotions overflowed, sadness spilling out; giving away to anger boiling underneath. Her short grey hairs started prickling against the inside of her uniform as they stood up. "Get out." A voice that was Judy's yet not Judy's growled. Slowly her head turned to the only other standing mammal; he was the reason her friend was hurt.

 _anger…rage…._

"Get. Out." The growl came louder from the once so gentle and peaceful bunny; but now she was neither gentle or peaceful.

Without needing anymore warning the honey badger quickly stepped backwards out of the room keeping his paws up and maintaining eye contact until the door closed firmly closed and the electronic locks engaged. The Dr. was torn from what just happened, they weren't able to cure Nick, but at the same time he had just witnessed a prey transitioning into a savage; this was going to be an exciting evening indeed.

* * *

Over ones lifetime, a third of their time is spent waiting, waiting in lines, waiting for the movie to start, waiting for a call, or waiting for something to happen. But how long was too long? Was it weeks? Months? …years? What if you were waiting for someone to wake up, at what point do you give up, at what point do you leave your loved one knowing you were the last to hold on, but now you too were letting them be forgotten?

Judy didn't know, how could she possibly leave Nick's side after everything he had done for her. Another Dr. came in to take another blood sample from the red fox, still laying on his same bad; even she didn't bother asking the small rabbit how she was holding up. All that mattered to Judy was the fact that Nick was still in as deep of a sleep as he was when she first saw him in this room. Fortunately for the sad mammal it was only the day after rather than months of waiting and losing hope.

After the nurse had left Judy was still sitting there rolling her carrot pen in her fingers. When she first came to the city it was brand new, still shiny and smooth. But now after the month or so that had gone by it had become slightly worn, scratches and marks here and there, a little chip missing from one of the green leaves around the microphone; this little thing is what started everything for her, and so she pressed the button.

The rewound messages sounded like nothing more than incoherent syllables and sounds until she let her finger off the button. "I make two hundred buck a day fluff" Nick's voice came through just as challenging as it had when he said it. "Three hundred-and sixty five days a year, since I was twelve. And time is money, so hop along." His voice was cold and dismissive back then, it was nothing like when he had talked to her when they met under the bridge a week ago. Judy was expecting to hear the recording of Bellwether next but to her surprise it never came.

"Hey Carrots, how's it going?" shocked Judy snapped her head to Nick but her ears were trained onto the plastic object in her hand, it wasn't Nick talking; it was a recording of him talking. "I thought I should return this to you somehow so, here it is I guess." The tone carried in his voice was down, it wasn't his nonchalant voice he always had, it sounded hurt and heavy like it was longing for something.

"Judy I'm sorry about scaring you at the press conference, I-I shouldn't have done that" there was a short pause in the message but feedback still sounded through the speaker, "Ugh that's stupid I can't send that to her." And then it clicked off again only for it to click back on again. Time after time there were dozens of short messages, some a bit longer than others, and in all of them seeming to build off the last

"I bet you're wondering how I sent this to you, well like I said; I know everybody. Besides you're the only bunny who became a cop." His voice was confident and clear in this message. But then it became softer, "And you're the only bunny that's ever gotten to know me. I'm sorry Carrots, I didn't mean to hurt you. I-I just felt so hurt I didn't know what to do. Judy please come back. I need you." Now his voice was heavy, and it showed that just like she had needed him during possibly the hardest time in her life, he needed her.

That was Nick's last message to her, because with the next set of clicks the recording or the wicked sheep began to play. But Judy just couldn't listen to it again, she couldn't listen to the voice that had done this to Nick and so she clicked the stop on the recording. And with that click she began to cry. She lowered her head into her crossed arms on the bed gripping at the fabric under her paws, her shoulders shaking hard as she sobbed. She had hurt worse before, but she couldn't help but feel the damn burst. "...you dumb fox…" she choked out quietly through her sobs.

Weeks ago Judy was in the hardest time of her life, and then recently Nick pulled her out of the dark tunnel and into his embrace in his soft furry arms; and now she found out that he was in a dark just as cold and unloving as she was, until they pulled each other out and became the others light. They weren't in their own tunnels looking for a way out, they were in they same tunnel looking for each other; and now they found each other, but at what cost.

Pain was a funny thing, it was an experience, always different and never the same; Judy's pain was not as simple as losing a friend. The pain the small mammal felt now was from losing everything and then getting everything back with hope that things were going to become even better, but then losing everything once more; it wasn't the loss that hurt her, but the hope that lifted her higher before letting her go.

Judy had spent the rest of the hour sobbing her heart out and trying to learn how to deal with the feelings spilling over the glass they were held in, and when that hour had past she had fallen asleep clinging onto Nick paw like a lifeline as her head lay in the tear soaked blanket.

* * *

The next morning Dr Shaw was looking over the new blood sample data they had collected from Nick during the prior morning and night. The night shift nurse had asked if he wanted them to take Judy to the room she had used a few days ago, but not wanting to upset her without reason the Dr said to leave her where she was; besides, even he knew when people needed emotional comfort, and this was all he could do to help her for the time being.

Late last night their machines had finished processing the last of the fox's blood samples they had taken, and now the scientist was taking the data and putting it into their computer systems looking it over himself as he did so; while he knew he was no match for the work power of the modern age he also knew that it never hurt to have the mammal element check everything over a few times. Now that he knew what he was looking for it was easier to tell that he had made a mistake the last time he did this, but still he wouldn't have an exact number for an hour or so.

While they still didn't fully understand the side effects of the antidote they were only minor things like bipolar behaviors, unable to focus, loss of appetite, and other minor inconveniences. But the lab as a whole had agreed that those side effects were negligible compared to what the mammals were going through in their savage state. Along that mammals, waking up with the help of the antidote could recall things in their savage state, and all of them reported having been in a constant state of pain and burning sensation; this was thought to be another cause of the extremely hostile behavior.

But that lead to another mystery in Nick's case, if he truly was in the same pain his would be far worse than the rest of the afflicted mammals, but yet he almost always treated her gently without showing any signs of that pain. This was another intriguing subject to look into once Nick had been cured of the toxins; and with any luck this new antidote would be ready by noon.

* * *

It was almost three and Judy was sitting back at her desk typing way at her computer as she had been for the whole day. Because the trial still on going along with the down and off set vibes she was giving off chief Bogo had assigned her to filing some of the recent police reports into their system. She had just finished a report about an arrest involving a drunk driver from the previous night, and she was giving her fingers a break as she stretched her arms overhead as she leaned back in her chair.

"Hey Judy." A familiar voice called from the speaker of Judy's desk phone, "There's someone here to see you." Clawhuaser's voice came through for the second time.

Judy's long ears stood up in attention directed at the phone and she looked at it curiously for a moment before leaning forward to press the response button, "O-okay, I'll be right down." She said curious as to who it could be. As she walked to the elevator and got in having to give a slight hop to hit the button she thought about everyone it could be; maybe the mayor again, or an official from the court, most likely it was the prosecutor again though.

But her heart skipped a beat when through the glass she saw the top of a red fox's head and ears poking over the counter talking to the large feline officer. "Nick!" she yelled in the elevator unable to stop herself. Without hesitating she jumped up onto the handrail trying to see him but the elevator had already gone too far down, all she saw was his ears again; but without a doubt in her mind those were his brown tipped ears. The little officer was pacing in the small room and stopped didn't stop till the elevator stopped, at that point she rushed through the opening before it was even half way open.

She ran through the legs of her fellow officers ignoring their protests, she has tears in her amethyst eyes and her heart was beating out of her chest. The only thing that she cared about was seeing her friend and never letting him go again. Within seconds of leaving the elevator she turned the corner around the front desk her heart couldn't wait a second longer, "Nick!-" just before jumping into Nick's arms tackling him to the tile floor, she froze.

"Is-is Nick alive?" a broken voice said on the verge of tears. This was not Nick, the red fox standing there could only be Nick's mom. She was in a soft lavender top with arm length sleeves, and to match her top was a faded magenta skirt that went down a little past her knees. But what stood out the most to Judy was the wet and matted fur under the vixen's glossy eyes, all that along with the unmistakably hurt and frightened look that was all over the fox's face. "Please t-tell me my baby boy is alive" she began sobbing again.

Judy had thought she had been heartbroken losing her friend, but what she was seeing now what real heartbreak is; it isn't just sadness and emptiness, it's a void, a void that tears people apart. This poor mother had lost her son to the cruel world but miraculously found out he was alive, only to hear seconds later that he wasn't alive anymore. "Nick is alive Mrs. Wilde. He is alive and being taken care of, but…" the small officer carried off. She had no idea how to break the truth to the suffering mother.

"' _But'_ what?" Mrs. Wilde asked trying to compose herself; and struggling to do so. "What happened to my baby?" her voice beginning to slip as she couldn't help but sniffle.

At a loss of what to do the newest officer looked to her friend for help, "Why don't you take her up and talk to the chief about it, I'm sure he can tell you what's going on Mrs. Wilde." He thought of quickly, and without waiting any longer he picked up his phone sitting by him and called up to the chief, after a brief talk he gave the two mammals on the other side of the desk the okay and Judy took the elderly fox to the elevator.

As they rode up to the top floor Judy's purple eyes wandered over the red fox with her, from what she knew about Nick she was in her early fifties however she looked to be in late fifties. In her mind she began to quietly remember what Nick had said back on the sky trains during the case, ' _My mom scraped together enough money_ ' and then the wheels began to turn in the officer's mind. This woman with her now had struggled to make sure her only son lived a happy life, only for the cold and cruel city to take that happiness away, and then eventually take her son away too. She must have spent every second feeling worried for her son, every second missing him hopping one day she would find him, but Zootopia was a big city and foxes only had a small place in it.

It wasn't long before they reached the office they were looking for, it was left cracked open for them and Judy pushed it open the rest of the way for the red fox she was with. "Mrs. Wilde?" chief bogo asked softly to her, he was tough on his offices, relentless to the criminals, but to those who needed help; he was gentle. After her nod he offered her the seat in front of his desk, and Judy not knowing exactly what she should do stood beside the chair holding the mother's paw for comfort. "Mrs. Wilde, with everything going on first I would like to ask you tell me everything you've hear. I know you must be very worried about your son this past week-" his voice sincere in concern for the mother.

"W-week? I haven't seen my baby boy for seventeen years…" she carried off, "After he was attacked at the ranger scouts meeting we went to the police, but they never did anything, and my poor son never got over it. He kept to himself, and it only got worse, over years he started getting caught in fights but he never started them, he was always in trouble at school but it was the teachers. I know he was troublesome but I know he also never did anything wrong. But then one day when he was fifteen he-he ran away." She began to sob as she relived those hard years in a matter of seconds, all the memories of her baby crying and suffering.

The two officers gave her all the time she needed to let out her pain, the chief offering the sad mammal the box of tissues, and Judy still holding her paw supportingly with the other rubbing gentle circles on her back. After a few minutes Mrs. Wilde had calmed down enough to start up again, "I looked everywhere for him, went to the police, and I kept searching; even when the police stopped. I looked for years on my own, but I never found him." she cut her explanation of Nick running away short, only so she wouldn't have to relive the pain and suffering all over again. "But-but then this morning I saw something on the news, it was from a few weeks ago about the press conference, I hadn't seen it before today but when I saw it I knew that was my baby." She said with the faintest of sad smiles on her face, that was the first ray of sunshine she had seen in these past seventeen long years.

"But then it said something about an attack leading to an arrest and the trial going on right now, and-and-and." She began to spiral into worry and fear; the thoughts and worst case scenarios running through her mind were something no mother should have to think of.

However the long time officer and now chief was not going to let her spiral out of control, "Mrs. Wilde, your son is alive and is being taken care of." He said loudly but gently so that he stopped her from panicking but did not scare her in her fragile state. "However there was an _incident_ involving the case." The large mammals said and then together him and Judy spent the next few minutes going over the important things that the mother needed to know; Bogo explained the things related to the case and then left it off to Judy who explained things that had been happening since Nick was taken to the lab.

"Can-can I see him?" Mrs' Wilde asked looking back and forth between the two officers, not knowing who had the right answer.

Looking to her commanding officer for approval and receiving a slight nod of the head from her chief Judy offered to drink her to the facilities so she could finally see her son after nearly two decades of waiting.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

Okay so a bit of a short chapter, and a bit rushed, but what did everyone think? I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

So the reason why it's a rushed/short chapter was because (for those of you that know about my shoulder dislocation) I'm getting surgery tomorrow morning because I tore the cartilage around the joint and fractured the joint as well. "You will hate me for about a week" were my Dr.'s words when I asked about the pain after surgery, so not looking forward to it. But the down time till I can get out of bed might be about 2 weeks. So I wanted to let everyone know that I will be out of commission for a while due to that little hiccup, so 'Instincts', 'Tales of Tails', and 'A Change in Life, A Change in Fate' will all be postponed till I can write again. I'm not abandoning anything but I will need some time for the pick up, but feel free to enjoy any of my other fics you haven't read yet in the meantime.

Until we meet again!~


	16. When The Fox Stires

**Chapter Notes:**

Hello all! As some of you already know I'm back from surgery and am doing decently well and recovered now.

Sorry about the long wait, I've been having writers block with all the school and other things going on right now.

So without further adieu!~

* * *

 **When the Fox Stires:**

Judy was comforting Mrs. Wilde as best as she could while Dr. Shaw escorted them to Nick's recovery room. It was nearly time for him to wake up; and hopefully this time the antidote would have the proper effect. Now that they were worried about what the outcome might be they had taken some extra measures to make sure things did not go unexpectedly. "Well officer Hopps, Mrs. Wilde, this is the room. I'll be down the hall checking on other patients but if you need anything press the emergency button on the wall." the scientist instructed as he opened the door for them leaving it so but closing the curtain so they could still have their own privacy.

The two mammals stepping into the room to see Nick laying on his back with his left paw over his stomach and his right hooked up to the IV. It was the same as when Judy had last seen him but worlds different from when the mom had last seen her baby. One shaky step at a time a timid and afraid mother found herself near her kit once again, it had been so long, so painful, how could she even call herself his mom anymore. She reached a paw out to take Nick's free one but froze, and pulled it back to herself holding it close to her chest and taking a heartbroken step back.

"Mrs. Wilde." Judy's soft voice came as another comfort to the mother, "It's okay, Mrs. Wilde, Nick is your son, and he still thinks of you as his mom too." she said remembering the look in Nick's eyes when he first mentioned her during his story about the ranger scouts. She knew Nick didn't hold anything against his mom.

With tears in her eyes the vixen looked at the officer, "But how can I call myself his mother when I was never there to raise him? How can I ever get back those years with my boy?" She was so against herself she just couldn't see the answer laying there in front of her.

"Because he knows that you've always loved him." It was such a simple statement but yet it was so strong and true. Mrs. Wilde looked over Nick one more time, she saw the way his chest rose and fell, heard the sound of the beep with every pulse, and remembered the way he came running into her arms that night long ago.

As the lone mother broke down and gave into her emotions she clutched her son's paw tightly in her own as if letting it go would cause him to slip away again; she couldn't lose her son for another day. Judy watched for a minute to make sure everything was okay, and with Nick not stirring anymore at his mom's touch the officer left the room to giver her some privacy to grieve in, and taking the time to call the chief and tell him everything was okay over here.

Several minutes after Judy had closed the curtain behind herself, Mrs. Wilde slowly started calming down. After all the sadness had seeped away she felt empty for a little while, but then she started to remember all the good and happy things that was her son when he was a kit still; his smile and the way he looked at the world always made her smile. But when he stopped smiling, so did she; how could any mother smile happily when her little boy couldn't.

But now she had her baby boy back, and she wiped away her tears because she didn't want the first thing he see to be her crying. No she wanted him to see her smiling lovingly like she always used to. She looked over Nick again as she held onto his paw just as tight as she had grabbed it, he wasn't a kit anymore, and she knew he wouldn't be the same fox she raised him to be after all his years alone in the city, but she would love him all the same.

It was about half an hour after Judy had left her alone and she was starting to take in the surroundings of the rest of the room when a knock came on the open door. "Mrs. Wilde?" A gentle voice announced the rabbit officer's presence.

"Oh, come in Officer." The older mammal said as she wiped her cheeks to make sure no tears remained on them from earlier. She was smiling now and glad that she is going to have her son back, and the officer at the door was the one who had reunited them.

Judy stepped into the room letting the curtain close behind her. "Please call me Judy." she insisted. While she was an officer and took pride in it, she felt that there was a time and place for that sort of stuff; and now was neither. "Here, I thought you might be thirsty." Judy smiled as she held out a nice cold bottle of water.

With a smile of her own Mrs. Wilde kindly took the bottle as judy sat down next to her. Just as she was about to let go of Nick's page to open it she felt his fingers curl around hers for the first time, she froze and stared at her son on the hospital bed watching and listening very intently for anything more. Seeing this Judy's ears stood alert waiting for the smallest of sounds to come from the sleeping fox as his muzzle slowly started to scrunch up in distress, causing both mammals to be worried and hopeful.

Nick began to kick at the sheets trying to get them off as he started wriggling underneath them. He scrunched his face and grunted his displeasure while still holding his mom's paws tightly now. "That's it Nick. Wake up, please wake up." Mrs. Wilde tried coaxing her son back to her with the call of her voice.

Judy stepped up next to the foot of the bed as the mom stepped up to the side, both of them hoping for Nick to wake up. A timid smile crawled across her face at the thought of her friend finally being okay; she had been so worried this whole time and was going to stay worried, but now he was going to be okay.

That's when Nick shot up into sitting position as his eyes flashed open; as his dangerous emerald eyes flashed open.

 _danger_

The instincts screamed at Judy to run forcing her to become alert to the savage fox, it came unexpectedly and without warning; she was too late to scream at Mrs. Wilde to warn her to get away. Judy could only watch.

"My baby boy." Mrs. Wilde cried as she threw herself at her son wrapping him tightly in her arms clutching onto his back as she sobbed lightly into his shoulder. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I'm sorry…" she kept repeating with her voice broken.

The fox that was Nick froze. At first it was he who was afraid. This other fox had lunged at him and caught him, he could not escape, but death never came. Instead a voice came forward as he felt the warmth of this fox wrap around him; a warmth he felt before a long time ago. Then he the savage fox began to slip away in peace; he was safe here. As Nick finally came to after weeks of being trapped in his own body tears began streaming down his face.

"Mom…" his voice came broken as he hugged his mom close to him in return. He didn't even have to ask to know. He had looked and searched for her for a long time, he knew who she was and she knew who he was; they didn't even have to ask at this point because they already knew.

Judy couldn't help but watch tensed as Nick came to his senses. She saw the shift in his eyes and posture, she felt the shift in her own instincts as well; Nick was finally back. And she couldn't help but feel salty tears trail down her own cheeks as she watched the long overdue reunion between a mother and her lost kit. She felt herself relax as she sniffled in her whole hearted happiness for the family in front of her.

* * *

The sun was beginning to set over Zootopia and Judy was talking with Dr. Shaw in one of the offices in the hospital wing. She decided it would be best if she left Nick to spend time with his mom after being apart for so long, but more so than that she had a few questions that she needed answered.

"Are you certain he was still in a savage state when he woke up?" The scientist asked after hearing the officer saying what had occurred when the fox had woken up.

Judy thought back to the moment when Nick shot up, she remembered the fear she felt in that split second seeing his eyes as dangerous as they were before; and there wasn't a doubt in her mind. "I'm sure of it." Her voice was confident and unwavering. While she did not know what she was accomplishing by reporting this to the Dr. she was more afraid of risking Nick's life on her not going to the Dr.

The badger looked at the tablet screen in front of him watching the moment when Nick had woken up. Unfortunately the camera was positioned in the corner by the door, meaning it was not able to see Nick's face when his eyes opened in good detail. "But you say he didn't remain that way long?" he questioned curiously.

"That's right." Judy stated before elaborating on the statement. "It was when she hugged him. He just froze up like he was trapped, but then he started coming to. I- I just don't know if it's a good or bad thing, what does it mean?" She now turned the question to the Dr who was still looking over the file and video, her voice showing confusion; confusion and worry.

Even he didn't know what the problem was all he knew was that it was indeed a problem; and it needed to be solved quickly. "I'm not sure office. But I will look into it."

* * *

At the same time back in Nick's room things were finally looking up for the reunited family. Mrs. Wilde was smiling again as she held her son, her tears coming to a stop as he comforted her. But in her calmness her motherly mindset in worrying over her kit started coming through and she began to realize something. "Nick sweetheart are you...are you feeling okay?" she asked full of concern as she held onto his paws as she pulled away from the embrace. She had gotten the brunt of what had happened to Nick, but none of that would be the same as hearing from her son.

Nick thought about it, he thought of what he should say; what would he say, he didn't know what he was supposed to say to her. "I've got a headache, but I'm okay _mom_." he said with honestly with a voice filled of comfort and happiness; it had been so long since he last said that word in the context it was now, and he missed it so much. "How...how did you find me?" he asked with a near broken voice. He had looked for her for so long and could never find her, and now here she was when he woke up, just like she had always been there when he was a kit.

For an instant she was hurt, that first moment it almost felt like he wasn't happy to see her again, but then she felt the sadness in his voice and saw it on his face. She took a moment to explain how she heard about the case on the news, how she just knew that it had to be him, and about how worried and afraid she had become. "And then the Judy brought me here." she finished off what happened.

"Judy's here? Is she okay?!" he asked suddenly and urgently, even he was caught off by the amount of worry and urgency that laced his voice. She was his friend so of course he wanted to make sure she was okay, but why did he feel so panicked and frightened that he didn't know if she was okay; he didn't care though, he had to make sure she was okay.

It took a moment for Mrs. Wilde to blink away her surprise of her slight startle, "She-she's fine. She just had to go talk with the Dr. about something after you started waking up." Mrs. Wilde explained to her son. He visibly relaxed at hearing the good news, but then as he relaxed he started to feel lost; like he was forgetting something, something important.

That's when the pain came. His head felt like it was going to slip open and his teeth and nails ached like they never had before. But the worst of all was the burning inside of himself, he couldn't help but to wither in pain clawing at the bedsheets hoping they would relieve him somehow. "Nick sweetheart what's wrong? Are you okay?" the mother asked as she stood up in concern for her son. Things were just fine and she had no idea what lead to him suffering now.

"...mom…" he choked out through his clenched jaw, he was cringing from pain to the point where he could barely speak now.

Mrs. Wilde remembered the Dr. telling her if anything went wrong to press the emergency button by the door and get out of the room; but she couldn't leave her baby to suffer through whatever pain this was. Without thinking for a second more she pressed the help button and then went back to Nick's bedside grabbing onto him hoping to comfort him in anyway.

* * *

Judy and the Dr. were heading to check on Nick when his pager went off in his pocket and when he looked at the message he couldn't hide his shock from the small officer. "Did something happen?" she questioned with concern amethyst eyes.

"We have to hurry." he said giving no further information but as he pulled out his phone he began making orders for equipment and other personnel to get to Nick's room ASAP.

But hearing that none of them would get to him quicker than Judy. With her strong legs to propel her she ran past the elevator making a b-line for the stairs, jumping over the edge and using her legs to take the small impact she rolled herself and was up in a second. It was only a few moments before she was outside Nick's door opening it up to see Nick now withering on the floor with his mom trying her best to help him. But she had seen him wither like that once before and she knew what it was.

Quickly she went In front of Nick trying to comfort him as well. "Mrs. Wilde you need to get out of here quickly, it isn't safe right now." She tried to convince the concerned mother.

"Why what's happening to him? I'm not leaving my boy like this." The larger manual protested as she help onto her son with one arm across his rotating shoulder blades.

"Mrs. Wilde-" judy was interrupted by the door opening and several mammals coming in.

"Please... mom…" Nick choked in pain "you have...to hurry...I can't… fight it" he begged her to get to safety. He knew what was happening, he could feel himself slipping away into something dark and dangerous.

The Dr. took her free paw and slowly led her back out of the room. He knew Judy would be safe but he didn't know if the mother would be remembered by the savage fox coming from with in her son, but that is why he moved slowly. If the other Nick recognized his mother he would attack anyone to protect her; foxes in the stone age had an extremely strong sense of family between their generations.

Once Mrs. Wilde was watching safely from behind the glass door Judy grabbed hold of Nick's cheeks firmly but gently forcing him to look at her. "Nick stay with me, stay here Nick. I can't lose you again." The purple eyes bunny did her best to plead with her friend, did her best to keep him sane.

Those eyes were so strong, so cool, so comforting. It seemed like it was working as a way to calm Nick down, he began to get a grip on the burning and control his breathing, but as he did so there was another change in himself. He couldn't ignore how soft and gentle Judy's scent was. It was a warm and earthy feeling, it smelt like flowers in the spring time, or pine needles in the winter; he was not sure what it was exactly, but he knew he could not get enough of it. He nuzzled himself against her loving the way she smelt and loving the way her paws felt against him fur, he loved the peacefulness so much he just just _slip away_ and fall asleep.

Judy felt a hot burning beneath her fur as she felt Nick nuzzling against her again, it didn't happen right away but after Nick began to sigh in relief after each deep breath she could not help but to blush more each time. Then the fact that the other mammals along with his mom was watching the strange and _different_ interaction only made things worse for the small officer. Even with all that going on though, she could not deny that she too loved the way it felt; she loved his fur in her paws and his strong muzzle against her side, it was enjoyable the way his head rested perfectly against her as they were now.

Just outside the door a panicked assistant came running down the hall pushing a cart with the supplies worried that she was late to the emergency call. "Dr. Shaw here is-" she was cut off by herself in her own unnecessary hurry when she accidentally rammed the cart into the wall making a loud crash followed by the crash of the heavy metal cart as it felt against the door shattering it.

In that moment the silence and the door were not the only things shattered, but the peace and safety in that moment as well.

 _danger_

Nick became extremely alert to everything around him. His bunny, the loud dangerous sounds, all the larger mammals closing in on them, and the looming danger they brough. He needed to get them to safety. He needed to protect his bunny. Growling at them warningly to stay back was his first attempt; the one in the back stopped but the one already getting closer did not. This place was too unfamiliar, he didn't know what to do, there was only one thing he could do to get his bunny to safety.

"Nick calm down, you're okay." Judy tried to stop him from attacking someone to protect himself or her. She knew he was afraid, she could feel it, but she knew he was ready to pounce at any moment. Nick had gotten between her and the staff of the lab and was backing them up into the corner of the room slowly as his back was arched and his shoulders rolling above the base of his neck, the ever present growl coming from him. "Shh Nick it's- OKAY!-" she screamed as she tried to calm him down by putting her paws on his side when he turned on her without warning snapping at her, on reflex she flinched away from him curling inwards on herself before being lifted up.

Nick had intended to pick her up by her scuff but instead he picked her up by a hard strap thing over her shoulder, but there was no time for him to put her down and pick her up the right way; so with her securely in his hold he bounced off the walls surrounding them to get around the mammal closing in with something in his paw. He ran on all fours down the stretch of open area looking for a way out trying to smell for somewhere familiar and safe to go. The extra weight in his mouth made it hard at first but he had to focus on getting them away. A large hole in the wall opened up and without thinking he ran in to hide in the darker area as another mammal came out.

Judy bounced along protesting every bit of the current situation, but right now Nick wasn't able to understand her, and she wasn't even sure if he was paying attention to her seeing as his eyes and ears were constantly scanning the surrounding area rather than focusing on any one thing. But now she found themselves in a elevator with the doors closing behind them. Nick gently set her down and began panting to recover from the run but taking time to nuzzle her momentarily before the elevator was called to the ground floor. While Judy could easily tell what was going on the savage fox on the other hand had no idea why the world began shaking and it frightened him greatly, he wrapped himself around his bunny hoping that the horrible shaking would stop soon.

With the way he was acting Judy couldn't help but to smile and giggle at Nick as he curled around her; she couldn't tell if it was for his own comfort or hers, but she didn't mind it in the least. She returned the favor and held onto him tightly trying to calm down his shaking by holding him against her lean frame; and it seemed to work. But as soon as they stopped and the doors opened a large mammal stepped in startling Nick into scooping her up again and dashing out into the lobby. When he finally saw green grass and trees outside he couldn't have been happier and quickly made a mad dash for the familiar outside world.

Chief Bogo was the mammal who boarded the elevator and turned to see that Nick was carrying Judy out into the city through the front door to the lobby. "Hopps!" he shouted just before the elevator closed on him refusing to open up because it was called to another floor.

Bouncing in Nick's clenched jaw was not what Judy had in mind for the night, but the fox was currently darting around in the shadows staying out of the light as he made his way behind everything that they came across. Judy's biggest worry was now he was loss in the city, and her only hope was that he would focus on her rather than anything that was to come in the night ahead.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

Okay there we have the next chapter! Sorry again about the long wait, I and hoping that with school being a little bit in now things might slow down a bit and i can get more writing in, but i hope the wait times aren't too bad. Thank you all for sticking around and i hope you enjoy the story to come!

As a side note, I am looking for a cover image to use for my other fic 'Nick's Day Off' if you are interested in doing something for it I am more than happy to give details in a PM, so just let me know if that's something you would want to do.

Alright, with not much else to say I will see you all in the next chapter!


	17. Closing

**Chapter Notes:**

It's been a very long time hasn't it? I don't really have an explanation for me suddenly leaving but I owe everyone an apology and at least some form of closure on the story. I am sorry for the long wait but I hope you all enjoy the final chapter of Instincts.

So I can finish this I am going to cut through stuff a lot in here but I will try to get to all the major points I feel would help complete this story for everyone.

* * *

 **Closure:**

When Nick found a large clearing in the bushes of the central park he dove through the opening lodging himself and Judy into the small hiding place. Now for a stone age fox like what Nick thought he was currently this would have been a great start to a den for him and his companion. Only Nick wasn't a stone age fox and his companion was a bunny that was still able to think rationally, and for her this was not exactly a joyride. "Nick just breath it's okay." She tried comforting him after he set her down in the middle of the small den.

She watched as he didn't pay mind to the words she was saying but rather biting at the branches until they broke, then he would move on to the next one. Judy was confused to say the least, but then somehow it clicked for her; this 'savage' fox was building a home. That thought brought a blush to her face thinking about what that meant for Nick's feelings, and in her small daze Nick had finished making their den for the time being. After scooting all the twigs to the sides he wrapped himself around his bunny keeping his attention focused between her and the entrance.

"Nick-" Judy went to say something to hopefully get him to come to his senses but instead was met with a tongue licking against her face quieting her suddenly as she felt it brushing against her fur. She was well aware of grooming partners of mammal mammals thanks to the research she had done,, but all stone age mammals only groomed themselves or their families.

The bunny with the amethyst eyes was going to try to stop him again but part of her refused to do so; because that part of her was liking the affection that was meant behind the caring act. SO whether it was wrong to let him continue when he didn't know what he was doing, Judy didn't stop him. Instead however she waited till he was done after a few minutes and nuzzled into him before her eyes began to flutter. In no time at all the long day had worn her down and sent her off to sleep, and when the sound of snoring reached the foxes ears he curled his tail around her and snuggled her close before joining his partner in the land of dreams.

* * *

When Judy woke in the morning the first thing that greeted her was the fluffy orange all around her. She had no idea to what it was, all she knew was that it was warm and looked like Nick's fur. And that's when it hit her she had fell asleep cuddled up to Nick when he was in his wild state of mind, and currently said fox was still snoring with his muzzle resting in her lap peacefully and blissfully.

A smile worked it's way across her face as she gazed down at the harmless predator, even with his sharp claws and fangs he had never once hurt her and she never felt like he would. Stroking her paws through the fur on the back of his neck the small bunny didn't realize herself leaning down before she was burying her face in the soft wonderland.

But her nuzzling into the fox's neck stirred him from his sleep as he pulled away and gave a high pitched yawn like most canines still did. His emerald eyes locked onto Judy for a moment before the scanned the small place that he made their home for the night.

"Judy…where are we?" his voice was a bit scratchy but the confusion was clear as day.

"Do you remember anything Nick?" she asked him as he sat up. It was obvious he still wasn't at a hundred percent, but he was clearly better than he was before she had fallen asleep.

Nick held his head in his paws trying to fight away a growing headache. "I don't know, I just remember we were running from something weren't we?" the fox asked unsure about what actually happened, but he was somewhat on the right track.

"Umm well something like that…" Judy led off before giving a sigh. "The medicine didn't work all the way. You changed back." Her once bright eyes now downcast in disappointment, because from what is sounded like there was no fixing Nick anymore.

The fox was quiet. He was silent for a long while; but then he broke that silence. "Did I hurt you?" his voice was almost to the point of crying. Even with everything else going on she could tell the only thing that worried him was that one question.

"No Nick, you didn't hurt me at all." She confessed to him as she pulled him into a hug. "Please don't be afraid to be around me Nick, I know you could never hurt me." Her voice was soft and warm as it washed over him.

With her gentle words the fox gave in and slipped his arms around her into a tight hug. They stayed like that in each other's arms for a couple moments before her ears flicked again at the sound of his voice, "I love you, Judy."" The fos spoke quietly as his paw tightened slightly around her back.

When Judy pulled away from him though his heart nearly hatred and his ears drooped down waiting for the answer he hoped for deep down. But his orange ears snapped to her at the sound of her voice "I love you too Nick." Officer Hopps said before grabbing onto his fur and pulled him down into a kiss.

* * *

"While it seems the Night Howler serum has changed you brain's chemical composition, it does not mean you are a lost cause Mr. Wilde." Dr. Shaw said to Nick who was sitting beside Judy across from the table. After Nick had confessed and Judy did they same they weren't sure what to do, but Judy knew that he needed to be brought back to the hospital to make sure he was okay. "We are already working on something to take the edge off what ever this is, we don't know if it will be permanent but we do know it will help." The Dr. explained calmly and neutrally.

"What do you mean it might not be permanent?" Judy asked concern clearly lacing her words. But rather than responding like a normal mammal would instead the scientist slammed his clipboard down onto the table cause a loud bang that started the officer into a jump. "Why did you do that!?" the frightened bunny shouted trying to catch her breath. But she was stopped when she heard a low growling coming from the fox beside her.

With a light smirk at the results the Dr jotted down some notes, "That is why Mrs. Hopps." He said while examining Nick with his head lowered a bit more than it was and his paws clenched into fists. Dr. Shaw watched as Judy calmed down the victim while recording that as well before speaking again. "You see Nick, when ever you will feel startled or threatened you might have a similar reaction to the stimulus just now. Naturally the more serious the danger or shock the worse the reaction would be." The badger in the lab coat described the findings they had so far based on their evidence and testing.

"Is there something I can do to stop it?" Nick asked worried that his life would now be out of his control and he could snap at the drop of a hat.

"We think stress relievers like meditation, yoga, or even anything you do to relax yourself would help to control the outburst. Of course you will also need to learn to control your breathing and things of that nature might even help to bring you down from this 'savage' state." He gave the long explanation hoping that they would be able to understand it all, and luckily they did.

Both Nick and Judy understood what the Dr. was explaining to him. Nick for himself and Judy so she could better help him. "Is there anything that would help him more? Something more permanent?" she asked as she looked at Nick with a look of guilt.

Now this was something that their lab had been looking into with great interest. "Yes there is a medicine in the making. It will not cure Nick of this…change. But it will help to fight away that aggressive nature." He said proudly that they were making such progress in the lab.

* * *

After things with the Night Howler case were finished in court and the lab had finished with creating Nick's medicine things in the city slowly began going back to normal. But for Nick things were far from normal. It was almost a constant at first for the fox to feel his primitive instincts pulling at him; either warning him to run when frightened or to go against those that threatened him. But the biggest challenge was controlling the urges to be just snuggle up to Judy at any moment in the day.

Just as Nick and Judy feared with this problem, it never went away, but it did get better. Thanks to his help and sacrifice for the greater good of the city the re-instated mayor Lionheart wanted Nick to work on a team in the police agency. But because of his unstable issues he couldn't be a part of the force like Judy was, but he happy worked within the precinct in records and the mail department.

It was quiet but it there was always stuff for him to do, and it paid decent for the ex hustler, but for him the best part was being able to work with and help the little go getter officer he had began to fall head over heels for. Along with that she would introduce him to the other officers she had made friends with, and little by little he enjoyed this new life more and more. He and his other kept in touch and wood have dinner at her apt every Thursday; she wasn't going to lose her baby boy anytime soon, or ever again for that matter.

Nick and Judy after a lot of discussion ended up finding an apartment together so that way she can watch over him better without feeling like she is intruding and she he doesn't feel like she's going out of her way. But the thing was neither of them minded at all, in fact the two of them were glad to have the other close enough to feel their heart beating peacefully in their sleep.

It seemed like whenever Judy got hurt at work Nick would slip a little and get very overprotective of his bunny. It became easy for her to tell when he had his slip ups because those nights he would sleep curled up around her like he did those nights after the Night Howler case. But sleeping nice and cozy in her fluffy fox fort Judy nuzzled into her fox knowing that even as 'savage' as he was, he would always love her.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

Thank you everyone for reading, thank you everyone for all the critiques and words of support, and thank you bgnsteal for kicking me until I got back on here and finished this story.

I am sorry it had taken me so long for this and I'm sorry I ended it so quick and short.

I hope you all read and enjoy many more worlds of adventure out there! Until we meet again!~

(PS Sing is amazing and I'm taking short story requests!)


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